The British Universities Finance Directors Group (BUFDG) has set up a new working group on costing and pricing. The group will not be taking on the breadth of JCPSG's former role, and will concentrate on:
Chaired by Jon Gorringe (Director of Finance, University of Edinburgh), the group is made up of finance directors representing the sector geographically and by type of institution. It includes representation from ARMA, AUDE and AURIL, as well as major funders such as the Funding Councils and Research Councils.
The group's work will take account of the fact that the fEC agenda is not just about research, since to be fully sustainable institutions need to be recovering the full costs on their broad range of activities.
Download full details of the BUFDG Costing and Pricing group's Terms of Reference and membership.
Further information about the BUFDG Costing and Pricing group, including details about the group's timetable for reviewing the TRAC guidance, will be appear here or on the BUFDG website
Jon Gorringe can be contacted on tel 0131 650 2181, e-mail jon.gorringe@ed.ac.uk and Gary Halliday, Secretariat, can be contacted on 0131 650 9516, e-mail gary.halliday@ed.ac.uk.
In early 2006, after three months from the introduction of TRAC fEC, the sector and other organisations were invited to raise any issues where they felt clarification of the TRAC Guidance would be of value. These have been considered by a small number of advisers (constituting a Technical Advisory Group) who are making recommendations to the BUFDG Costing and Pricing Sub-Group on how they are taking forward. These will be considered at the next meeting of that Group on 16 June 2006. Following that, a summary of the issues raised, and actions to be taken, will be posted. New Guidance will then be issued - the current plan is for this to be available by mid-July 2006. Some of this Guidance will affect the annual TRAC return for academic year 2005-06 to be reported in January 2007.
The BUFDG Costing and Pricing Group has approved a new method for calculating the Cost of Capital Employed (COCE) adjustment following a review led by HEFCE. Guidance on this, together with some changes to the infrastructure adjustment, will be available at the same time. This is to be implemented by institutions by January 2007 for reporting on academic year 2005-06.
A new process has been formulated for reviewing issues which are brought to the attention of the Group regarding the TRAC guidance. All interested parties are invited to submit issues and feedback for consideration as part of this new process. The process will take the form of a small team of technical advisers from throughout the sector, who will be asked to consider issues and advise on proposed changes to the Guidance. Details of how to submit these issues and feedback can be found at BUFDG Technical Group Information and Guidelines, along with guidance on deadlines for submissions.
The HEFCE is taking forward the development of a national costing framework for teaching. HEFCE has set up the Costing Framework Steering Group to oversee the work, and has appointed consultants, JM Consulting to undertake the design of the framework. Further information is available on the HEFCE web-site.
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