| چکیده انگلیسی مقاله |
Introduction: Given the importance of the education system in the health sector and the necessity to calculate the cost in this sector, this study aimed to calculate the cost of education for health students in Shiraz Medical School, using activity-based costing (ABC).Methods: This study was conducted in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in 2015-2016, considering the cost structure of the education department. The data required for the present research study was gathered from accrual accounting system, payroll system, educational deputy system called SAMA, list of paid salaries, information received from medical school such as exact position of individuals and course credits assigned to teachers, interviews conducted at the university headquarter in order to determine the appropriate indicators for allocating the costs, and interviewing clinical and non-clinical teachers to calculate the cost of training in these fields.Results: The findings indicated that the cost of training in general accounted for 70% of the total cost of student education. PhD in Medical Ethics, Assistant of Radiotherapy and Ph.D. in Pharmacology turned out to posit the highest cost for each student respectively, while MPH, Master of Medical Engineering, and Master of Electronic Medicine Education had the lowest cost for each student, respectively. The cost in all fields is more than the per capita cost of student education paid to the university.Conclusion: Authorities should focus on controlling and reducing the cost of training, which is the main component of the costs. Factors such as the number of students in each field, degree, andtype of field are effective in the costs of education. Hence, in order to allocate the budget more equitably, costs of education for each field calculated by ABC should be based on allocating the fundsto the university. |
| کلیدواژههای انگلیسی مقاله |
Activity-based costing, Accounting, Financial management, Medical school, IntroductionThe health sector throughout the world is under a lot of pressure to improve its services, control costs, and manage its budget. Thus, in response to chronic financial constraints, management accounting tools and costing systems are utilized ( 1,). University officials have also recognized the importance of management techniques for the management of universities and have noticed the growing need for an efficient accounting system for calculating the cost due to the reduction in available financial resources ( 2,). Therefore, the issue of student and course costs has been the focus of attention both in research and practice ( 3,).Due to superiority of activity-based costing (ABC) over traditional cost accounting (TCA) system in decision-making ( 4,- 6,) and subsequently ABC&apos,s significant impact on performance improvement as well as its benefits for budgeting levels, financial decision-making and strategic decision-making ( 7,, 8,), the number of organizations implementing ABC is growing ( 9,). Krishnan ( 10,), among others, also indicates that ABC helps educational institutions improve their performance by accurately calculating the cost per student and by identifying nonvalue-added activities. Therefore, ABC can be utilized as a powerful tool to solve various university management problems in educational affairs. Much research has been conducted on the calculation of ABC in universities ( 11,- 14,). These studies reveal how ABC is applied and what benefits it could have for universities ( 15,). ABC allows university administrators to understand the factors influencing teaching in general and each course in particular, and this understanding is important in the decision-making process. For example, a university can increase its productivity by reconsidering its activities with a new and sensitive view of costs ( 16,). It is worth noting that the full implementation of the ABC model depends on the understanding of all people working at the university about the benefits of this model, as well as a change in their view towards the cost management ( 17,).Some previous studies also have calculated the student costs using the ABC method in Iran ( 18,- 26,). However, no research has so far been conducted in Iran regarding the calculation of the cost of clinical disciplines. The present study has provided some important advantages and strengths compared to previous research studies. This study is the first attempt to provide a model in this field. In addition, previous research has ignored the costs incurred to support the colleges by the University of Medical Sciences headquarters. Besides, since the information required to allocate to all faculties is considered in the present study, allocating headquarter costs to faculties will be attempted more accurately. Also, previous research studies failed to make a distinction between the salaries of professors as faculty members and their receipts as their activity in hospitals, and duty units with or without job positions have ignored the calculation of the cost allocated for salaries of professors.Therefore, despite the benefits of ABC and its applications in many countries, the importance of adopting the ABC system in the health sector, especially in the clinical sector, has not yet been well recognized in Iran. Therefore, the cost of education in this section has not been determined accurately. As a result, university management in the health sector is struggling with the following issues, What are the cost patterns? What is the real cost of a student in clinical and non-clinical courses? How much tuition and budget is needed to effectively and efficiently manage these sectors? And how can management cope with the rising costs of health care and improve university performance? The aim of this study was to respond to the preceding enquiries. The ultimate goal of this article is to implement the ABC system in medical school, which includes both clinical and non-clinical courses, in order to reduce the difference between the practice and theory of using costing systems.MethodsThe present study is a quantitative research which falls within the category of applied-developmental research in terms of research type and direction, and is considered as a survey with regard to research method. All fields of Shiraz Medical School constituted the statistical population of this study. The implementation of ABC varies in different areas such as education, services, trade, and manufacturing, and requires specific features in each area ( 27,). According to the five steps provided for the implementation of ABC in universities by Amizawati et al. ( 28,) and considering the cost structure of the education department in Shiraz Medical School, this study employed ABC system in order to benefit from its advantages using the information of the 2015-2016 academic year.Step 1, Identifying resourcesFigure 1, shows the general structure of Fars University of Medical Sciences as well as general overview of the schools and the groups and fields of each school. Information on the costs incurred in faculties and headquarter (except for the cost of salaries and benefits) was gathered from the ",accrual system",, information on salaries and benefits of the faculty members and the staff of both the headquarter and the faculty itself from the ",salary system",, information on the tuition fees paid from ",Forms of tuition fees", paid by Educational deputy, and information on expenses incurred for research matters such as books, articles, etc. from ",Research Deputy Documents",. Also, educational information such as the number of courses taught by each teacher, number of students in each class, type of each course including degree, field, being theoretical or practical was collected from the educational deputy system called &,lsquo SAMA&,rsquo .Figure 1. Overview of the Structure of the Health Sector Step 2, Identifying resource driversAt the headquarter level, the expenses of Vice Chancellery for Health, Treatment, and Food &,amp Drug Affairs, which provide most of their services to the health sector, have been eliminated. Due to the fact that no research has ever been conducted in Iran to allocate headquarter costs to subsidiary units in order to calculate the cost in the health sector, appropriate drivers to allocate the costs incurred in the headquarter to subsidiary units (like hospitals, faculties, etc.) were determined based on the information received from the interviews with the experts in different Vice Chancelleries, 1. &,ldquo Education&,rdquo and &,ldquo Cultural and Students Affairs&,rdquo Vice Chancelleries, Allocation to faculties based on the number of students in each faculty 2. &,ldquo Research and Technology&,rdquo Vice Chancellery, Allocation to faculties based on the number of students (50%) and the number of faculty members (50%) of each faculty and 3. &,ldquo Chancellery&,rdquo and &,ldquo Development &,amp Resource Management Affairs&,rdquo Vice Chancellery, Allocation to all subordinate units (including hospitals, faculties, etc.) based on unit credits (40%), number of units (20%), and number of staff (40%). The preceding indicators are shown in Table 1,.Vice ChancelleriesUnitsCost DriversEducationFaculties The number of studentsCultural and Students Affairs |