European Examples for Funding/Target Agreements - Performance Agreements in Austria - Target Agreements at the University of Vienna

Transcription

1 European Examples for Funding/Target Agreements - Performance Agreements in Austria - Target Agreements at the University of Vienna Alexander Hammer / University of Vienna Dubrovnik / February 2011

2 Performance Agreements Ministry of Science University (Rectorate) Target Agreements Rectorate Organisational Units (e.g. Faculties) Individual Target Agreements Heads of Organisational Units Staff Members 2

3 Performance Agreements in Austria 3

4 1. Cornerstones 2. Funding 3. Content 4. Negotiation Process 5. Reporting Process 6. Experiences / Lessons learnt 4

5 Cornerstones Legal basis: Universities Act 2002 (entering into force in January 2004) Performance agreements are one of the most important pillars of the reform of Austrian Universities in 2002 total redesign of the budget allocation process (until now) Conclusion of performance agreements for and Contracts under public law Conclusion by individual universities and the Federal Government Periods of three years (instead of input-oriented funding for one-year-periods) Basis for establishment of performance agreement: development plan of University Publication of signed performance agreement on website of Ministry and University 5

6 Funding Establishment of a global amount for university funding in the next performance agreement period, not later than at the end of the second year of each performance agreement period, by the Ministry in consultation with the Ministry of Finance Retainment of up to 2% of the annual budget by the Ministry for special funding requirements and for supplementary performance agreements Subdivision of the overall global budget into a component devoted to the basic budget (80% of the global budget) a component for the formula-based budget (20% of the global budget) Determination in advance of a global budget / university for the three-year-period in each performance agreement The global budget is divided into a basic budget and a formula-based budget, but each university is free to use the global budget according to its needs. Other revenues (e.g. third-party funding, sponsoring) do not reduce the global budget. 6

7 Content 1/3 Strategic objectives, academic profiles and university development Quality assurance Human resource development Research Study programmes and continuing education Social goals Increase in internationality and mobility Inter-university co-operation Specific areas (e.g. infrastructure) 7

8 Content 2/3 Agreement on specific goals and specific performance indicators for each university according to its academic profile Agreement on projects and measures to undertake in each area, e.g. Increase of number of professors ( human resource development) Establishment of research platforms ( research) Improvement of student-teacher-ratios ( study programmes / teaching) Establishment of a gender controlling system ( social goals) Common investments with other universities ( inter-university co-operations) Agreement on performance indicators in each area, e.g. Number of (female) professors ( human resource development / social goals) Number of research platforms ( research) Number of FP7 research projects ( research) Number of restructured study programmes according to Bologna criteria ( teaching) Number of master programmes in foreign language ( internationality / mobility) 8

9 Content 3/3 Funding Basic budget over three-year-period Formula-based budget over three-year-period Supplementary specific budgets over three-year-period Yearly breakdown of global budget Possibility of additional annual development agreements for specific funding requirements (funding source: retainment of up to 2% of global budget by the Ministry) Reporting duties Measures in case of non-fulfilment of the performance agreement 9

10 Negotiation Process Submission of a draft performance agreement by the University by 30 April of the third year of the term of the current performance agreement Response to this draft by the Ministry by 31 August Negotiations on the performance agreement concluded by 31 December In case that a performance agreement is not concluded by the appointed date, an arbitration committee shall determine the contents of the performance agreement by official notification on the basis of the position reached by the negotiations up to that point. 10

11 Reporting Process Submission of an intellectual capital report by 30 April of each year Sphere of action, social goals and self-imposed objectives and strategies Intellectual capital, broken down into human, structural and relationship capital Outputs and impacts of the performance processes set out in the performance agreement including a report section based on the performance agreement Forecast of the performance outcomes after the second budget year Submission of annual financial statements, together with an auditor s report, by 30 April of each year Discussion between Ministry and University about performance agreement every 6 months ( Umsetzungsgespräch ) 11

12 Experiences / Lessons learnt Performance agreements are soft agreements, e.g. Performance in research and teaching not easily measurable No definition of sanctions in case of non-fulfilment of specific goals Stable funding, but no direct relation between performance of university and funding Formula-based funding not related with performance agreement because this part of the university s funding is based on the variation of indicators of past periods Low amount of funding for innovative projects No redistribution of funding between universities 12

13 Target Agreements at the University of Vienna 13

14 1. Cornerstones 2. Content 3. Negotiation Process 4. Experiences / Lessons learnt 14

15 Cornerstones Internal agreements Conclusion by organisational units (e.g. faculties) and the Rectorate Based on these overall target agreements, the heads of the organisational units conclude target agreements with their staff members Periods of one year Basis for target agreements: Development plan of the University Performance agreement between Ministry and University Internal publication of signed target agreement on the website of the rectorate and the organisational unit 15

16 Content 1/3 Teaching Research / Research Areas Co-operation and third-party project funding Personnel Internal Organisation Annual Budget 16

17 Content 2/3 Agreement on projects and measures to undertake similar to performance agreements Discussion on performance indicators in teaching e.g. Study programmes Number of (female) students, graduates, outgoing/incoming students Average length of study, Drop-out rate Discussion on performance indicators in research e.g. Publication output (peer-reviewed vs. not peer-reviewed) Third-party funding 17

18 Content 3/3 Agreement on funding of Teaching (including lecturers, visiting professors, tutorial staff) Running costs (formula-based taking into consideration specific needs of different research areas) Investment projects (funding based on investment proposals) Specific measures (e.g. funding of international co-operations on faculty level, funding of summer schools) Incentive system based on fulfilment of quantitative goals e.g. Additional funding according to the degree of increase of third-party funding 18

19 Negotiation Process Submission of a draft target agreement (including questions to organisational units and a budget proposal) by the Rectorate in September/October for the target agreement of the next year Response to this draft (including specific issues, requested funding of specific projects and investment proposals) by the organisational units in October/November Negotiations on the target agreement in November/December: Agreement on projects and measures to undertake (including a timeline) Agreement on incentive systems (performance indicators, target values) Agreement on annual budget Signature of target agreement immediately after the negotiation Internal publication of target agreement in January 19

20 Experiences / Lessons learnt 1/2 Structured top-down/bottum-up process Regular interaction between rectorate and organisational unit on clearly defined areas Transparent negotiation-based process between rectorate (including all vice-rectors) and the heads of each organisational unit (dean, vice-deans, study programme directors) Important instrument in order to break-down the university s overall strategic goals to specific goals on the level of each organisational unit 20

21 Experiences / Lessons learnt 2/2 Negotiation process very time-consuming bi-annual target agreements with annual discussion of ongoing projects? Organisational units often reluctant in committing themselves to goals and in defining quantitative performance indicators Target agreements too operational discussion on important (strategic) issues not yet included in target agreements Funding only includes running costs, investment projects and variable personnel costs funding only focussed on operational aspects strategic aspects as well as fixed costs (personnel/infrastructure) still have to be included in target agreements 21

22 Thank you for your attention! Alexander Hammer Head of Accounting and Finance / University of Vienna T F E alexander.hammer@univie.ac.at 22