Introduction to TRAC

 Zoom sessions on the 6th, 9th, 16th and 23rd May 2025

Cost: £225 + VAT per delegate

OUTLINE

This virtual course provides an introduction to the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC). It looks at the TRAC requirements, what universities need to do to comply with them and how they can go about doing it.

The course is aimed at members of finance staff involved in the implementation of TRAC within their institutions. It will also be of interest to more senior members of the finance team responsible for overseeing the TRAC process as well as to people from other teams.

Topics that the course will cover include:

• what TRAC is all about and how it works;
• governance of the TRAC process and the role of the TRAC Oversight Group;
• the annual TRAC cycle and the TRAC return;
• approaches to academic staff time allocation;
• calculating the indirect and estates cost rates;
• determining cost rates for research technicians and research facilities;
• full economic costing for research projects; and
• how to implement TRAC in practice.

No previous experience of TRAC is required.  If you have BUFDG Pro, you may wish to complete the Introduction to TRAC e-learning to understand some of the terminology ahead.  

The course is delivered online over a period of three weeks and combines a series of scheduled, live-online Zoom workshops with asynchronous pre-prepared learning materials delivered via an online learning platform.

The course will include:

• a one-hour introductory Zoom workshop with your course tutor and other participants, to get to know each other and to discuss how the course will work;
• a structured series of online self-study sessions covering key TRAC topics, presented by your course tutor in bite-sized chunks to help you to structure your learning (around six hours in total, spread across three weeks);
• access to the course online learning platform, allowing you to engage with the asynchronous learning materials at your convenience and to keep track of your progress;
• three one-hour, live-online group Zoom workshops (one each week) with your course tutor and fellow course participants to explore key topics in more detail and to answer any questions you may have;
• additional worked examples, learning quizzes and reflective assignments to consolidate your learning;
• the opportunity to book a one-to-one video call in your course tutor’s ‘office hours’ to discuss any questions you might have or to explore specific TRAC-related issues for your institution; and
• support via email from your course tutor for the duration of the course.

The Zoom sessions will be recorded. While you will get more from the course if you can attend them in real time, you can catch up from the recordings if necessary.

The sessions will take place on:

• Introductory session - Tuesday 6th May 11am-12pm.
• Week 1 tutorial - Friday 9th May 11am-12pm.
• Week 2 tutorial - Friday 16th May 11am-12pm.
• Week 3 tutorial - Friday 23rd May 11am-12pm. 
  

To participate in the course and to access the course materials, you will need a computer/tablet with a reliable internet connection, a microphone and audio capability. You will also need the free Zoom app, a video player app and a web browser.

Your course tutor will be Simon Perks, who has considerable experience of advising higher education institutions on the TRAC methodology and of developing TRAC costing models. He is the founder and director of Sockmonkey Consulting and lives in Somerset with his wife, Natalie, and Ozzy, his Labrador.