Description
Book SynopsisThis book takes an applied approach to budgeting and fiscal administration in higher education. It presents new and aspiring leaders in higher education and student affairs with the fundamental knowledge and skills to supervise, analyze, and implement budgets that make the best and most effective use of limited resources. By exploring the foundational elements of fiscal administration and outlining the process step-by-step, this text carefully takes leaders through real-world examples and includes myriad opportunities for application. Indeed, a major goal of this text is to provide readers with a set of technical skills that can be applied across a range of contexts. Our expectation is that current and future higher education and student affairs leaders will find this text invaluable in their day-to-day work and that the material presented here will help them engage in fruitful decisions around the allocation of scare resources.
Trade ReviewGabriel Serna and Spencer Weiler’s Higher Education, Fiscal Administration, and Budgeting is exceptionally well crafted, providing critical insights into how institutional budgeting actually happens and how it should happen. The authors go beyond the normal high-level considerations (though those are included) to provide specific guidance regarding the skills college and university budget managers will need to do their jobs right. Students of higher education, future administrators, and those currently working within higher education will benefit from Serna and Weiler’s work. -- David Tandberg, associate professor of Higher Education, College of Education, Florida State University
The authors offer a new spin to traditional higher education budgeting texts by focusing on forecasting, strategy, and data-driven decision making. The book provides an accessible introduction to the fiscal administration of colleges and universities while connecting leadership with finance. -- Nicholas Hillman, assistant professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Higher Education, Fiscal Administration, and Budgeting is a rare treasure in the field of finance and budgeting. By focusing on the fiscal management of colleges and universities, Serna and Weiler expertly and clearly teach us the foundational budgetary concepts, skills and strategies that all current and future administrators—whether in academic or student affairs—need to effectively and efficiently manage both operating and capital budgets. Replete with numerous illustrations, examples, and practical budget experiences using real data, this book offers a lively and engaging treatment of budgeting and fiscal administration. -- Michael B. Paulsen, professor, Higher Education and Student Affairs, The University of Iowa
Serna and Weiler do a masterful job of explaining complicated financial concepts in a way that will be accessible to students and faculty alike. This book will surely be a must-read for graduate courses in higher education finance and budgeting. -- Robert K. Toutkoushian, professor, Institute of Higher Education, University of Georgia, and editor, Research in Higher Education
Table of ContentsForeword Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview Phase I: Foundations Chapter 2: Getting to Know a Higher Education Budget Chapter 3: Revenue and Costs/Expenditure Structures in Higher Education Chapter 4: Basics of Financial Ratio Analysis Chapter 5: Forecasting, Accuracy, and Judgment Phase II: Developing and Overseeing the Total Program Chapter 6: The Operating Budget Process and Cycle in Higher Education Chapter 7: Oversight and Budget Variance Analysis Phase III: Foundations of Capital Budgeting and using Debt Chapter 8: Capital Budgets without Debt Chapter 9: Capital Budgeting and Debt Phase IV: Linkage, Philosophy, and Conclusion Chapter 10: Budgeting and Strategic Planning Chapter 11: Conclusion References and Further Reading About the Authors Index
