December 2008
The BUFDG Costing and Pricing Group's membership and activities are currently under review, pending further clarification of the role and activities of the Financial Sustainability Strategy Group and the Development Group. The FSSG was formerly known as the TRAC strategy group and its membership can be seen on the HEFCE website.
A letter from Professor Steve Smith, Chair of the FSSG dated 16th July 2008 can be read here. This shows the membership of the DG, which includes a number of Finance Directors and costing and pricing practitioners.
The letter issued to Heads of HEIs on 1 December 2008, together with the update to the guidance on time allocation definitions and application of reasonableness checks prior to submission of TRAC returns can be found on the HEFCE website.
An update to the TRAC guidance (December 2008) can be found on the JCPSG site.
In the meantime, TRAC Self-help groups continue to operate. Contacts are
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Midlands
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Bal Aujla and
University of Wolverhampton
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South
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University of Bournemouth
University of Southampton
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South-West
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University of Exeter
University of the West of England
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North-West
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fEC Accountant
University of Liverpool
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North-East
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Leeds Metropolitan University
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Wales
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University of Cardiff
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Scotland
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University of Glasgow
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TRAC Embedding Project
This project started in October 2007 but early work revealed that there was a need for a different approach to the issue of "embedding" TRAC in HEIs. The project concluded in July 2008 and a final report was produced which can be downloaded from the Info-Bank.
EUA Project
The report by the European Universities Association calls on national governments to recognise the importance of granting autonomy to universities and to assist in the implementation of full costing. The authors also recommend that European funding schemes further simplify and develop their funding rules to meet universities’ needs and hence to strengthen their contribution to the European Higher Education and Research Areas.