ACCOUNTING INFORMATION IN THE FUNCTION OF COST MANAGEMENT AT HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Higher education institutions (hereinafter HEIs) are important part of every society and therefore are continuously included in the different reform processes dominantly aimed at ensuring financial sustainability and increasing quality of education as well scientific processes. In that context, one of the greatest challenges for HEIs is efficient management. Appropriate accounting information system and the usage of cost information is inevitable for successful management at HEIs. Hence, the main aim of this paper is to research the relevant literature regarding usage of accounting information for management purposes with the special focus on the development of cost accounting that is in the function of efficient management. Through the relevant literature review, authors have investigated aforementioned issues in the developed countries and have compared this with the accounting systems at Croatian HEIs. Overall conclusion is that HEIs of developed European countries have become aware of the importance of quality accounting information and have implemented different modern cost methodologies that are improving management process. However, literature research at HEIs in Croatia has shown that their accounting system is still dominantly focused on satisfying legal requirements regarding accounting and financial reporting and not on developing of internal reporting system that will be in the function of efficient cost management.