Il nuovo sistema contabile delle Università

Azienda Pubblica devotes this special issue to the reform of the accounting system of public universities. The opening article is mainly theoretical. The paper proposes some considerations on the potential inconsistency between the regulations governing the new accounting system of universities, consolidated theoretical accounting principles, and best business practices. In particular, the contribution is focused, on the one hand, on the potential problems arising from differences between the accounting solutions dictated by law for universities and other public administrations, with special regard to the role of accrual accounting and, on the other hand, on the theoretical interpretation of the principle of universality of the budget, one of the cornerstones of the reform debated in the special issue. In greater detail, special attention is given to the capacity of the new budget and financial reports to satisfy the informative expectations of all the stakeholders, not just even a large part of them. In the final section the article gives some theoretical insights, providing interpretative keys that are helpful in explaining the causes and in investigating the effects of the process of change of public accounting systems. More specifically, this section suggests analysing the effects that the change of accounting systems generates in the "social situations" that characterize the management of universities, as a possible alternative to the traditional functionalist perspective.