Finance initiative will promote collaboration

Uniform accounting practices across further and higher education, set out last week, will boost collaborative ventures between colleges and universities, writes Claire Sanders.

Universities UK has drawn up a statement of recommended practice that covers the rules that universities and colleges must follow when presenting financial statements.

The Accounting Standards Board asked UUK to take the lead in developing new guidelines for further and higher education in the late 1990s.

A committee was set up and the first joint statement for the two sectors was produced in 2000.

The current statement was put out for consultation in December and was finalised in March.

Miles Hedges, director of finance at the Open University and chair of the technical group that is supporting the committee, said: "These statements are in fact stronger than recommendations. The funding council requires compliance."