Contribution to the implementation of full costing in France

The third country workshop of the EUIMA – Full Costing project took place in Paris. The event was organised jointly with AMUE (Agence de Mutualisation des Universités et Etablissements) and CPU (Conférence des Présidents d’Université), which were selected to host the event due to their important role and continuous engagement in promoting the development of full costing in French universities. More information about the country workshop in France is available on the event website. More information about the future activities of the EUIMA – Full Costing project is available on the project web page.
The workshop clearly demonstrated that full costing is a priority issue for French universities, which need to develop the right financial tools to facilitate their strategic management and support their increasing autonomy. Such efforts are strongly backed by the AMUE and CPU, and in particular by the new president of CPU, Mr. Louis Vogel, who spoke at the meeting.
The workshop, which presented international good practice, brought together more than 100 participants from 66 French institutions, including universities, funding bodies and relevant ministries. This allowed for a dynamic and critical discussion about the framework conditions needed to implement successfully full costing in France. Following the key findings from EUA’s work on this topic, and the recommendations from the participating international experts, the commitment of the university leadership was identified as the crucial factor in achieving this aim.
An important outcome of the workshop was the announcement of a series of further steps which will be taken in the next year to move towards the implementation of full costing in French universities. With full support of the CPU, the AMUE, as a body created specifically to support universities’ management, will organise follow-up events to highlight best practice in France as well as topic-specific workshops and training to support French universities in the implementation of full costing.