Finance

New to fEC?

Introduction to full economic costing at the University of Edinburgh.

Welcome to the University of Edinburgh’s Full Economic Costing website. This resource has been set up to assist interested colleagues to find out more about fEC and its use within the University. Sometimes referred to as Transparent Approach to Costing, the fEC project was established some years ago at the University in response to the UK government’s initiative to promote better understanding of university costs via the introduction of consistent, transparent costing methods across the whole of the UK Higher Education sector.

Although we have achieved much to date, there is always more to do. I chair the fEC Group, which now oversees the development of fEC within the University. I would like to thank my academic and support colleagues on this Group who have assisted in promoting the initiative across all three colleges. I would also wish to express my appreciation of all colleagues across the wider University community who have come to accept and promote fEC as an integral part of the research process.

The historians amongst you may be interested to know that the fEC Group was established in its current form in April 2007. Representatives of each of the colleges regularly attend, as do colleagues from Information Services Group, Finance and ERI. Over the last two years, the University’s TRAC model has been re-developed and expanded to a 21-school version, a policy on the distribution of research overheads has been instituted, costing methodologies for both small and major research facilities have been worked out, and the “Time Allocation Survey” (for capturing use of academic time) has bedded in. In 2008, the University successfully came through the Research Council UK’s Quality Assurance Validation (QAV) audit. We have recently also undergone an audit of our costing model in relation to EC FP7 projects.

Research income at the University continues to rise. Funders may still not be paying 100% of fEC, but substantial new money is coming in for sustainability purposes. Between November 2007 and November 2008, research applications went up 49% and awards were up by 39%. As projects costed on the old, pre-fEC basis quickly come to an end, it is imperative that this upward trend continues.

TRAC for teaching is also being worked through but the costing process for teaching is still in its infancy. Likewise the costing of Other Activities is only at an early stage - but it is essential to grasp all three areas if we are to properly understand the nature of our costs here at Edinburgh.

As these individual strands develop and grow into a consistent whole model, we will continue also to develop this website, as one means of helping to keep colleagues up to date. Of course, if you have a question that is not answered here, please get in touch with me, or with any of my colleagues on the contacts page.

 

In 2011/12, the number of research awards increased by 29% and 37% by value compared to the prior year.