ON THE ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES WITHIN UNIVERSITIES

The central concern of this paper is the allocation of resources between academic departments within universities. After discussion of the broad principles involved in allocating under alternative funding regimes, attention is focused on the use of performance indicators and, in particular, the use of cost per student as a criterion for allocating teaching resources. The difficulties in calculating and interpreting cost per student are explored, using data for UK universities for purposes of numerical illustration. An attempt is made to suggest improvements in the measurement of cost per student and in the standards of comparison which are used in its interpretation.