Traditional cost systems of South African Private Higher Education System

Abstract

This paper undertakes a historical and empirical study of the costing systems of private higher education institutions (hereafter
 referred to as PHI’s) in South Africa from 1990 to 2005. PHI’s have changed their costing systems, greatly since 1997.
 This was due to the changes in the Higher Education Act of 1997, which made their registration compulsory and subjected
 them to further conditions. A further complication was the merger of public institutions which created mega-universities, and
 made it impossible for even the largest PHI to compete equally. A research questionnaire was sent out to forty-five registered
 PHI’s focussing on cost analysis. It was found that although PHI’s were using traditional costing systems, a large number
 (70%) were in the process of adopting modern cost systems, to include Activity Based Cost systems and “balanced scorecards”.
 However, the study revealed that in terms of the PHI’s size based on student numbers, the costs far exceeds the benefits
 of introducing modern cost systems. This study is not only important to the national education department, public higher
 education institutions, students, sponsors and shareholders but more important to prospective overseas countries like the
 United States, England and Australia, who wish to invest in South African higher education.