Paper type: research paper Purpose: Although there is no mandatory requirement for Italian universities to report beyond a financial report, several universities have produced a social report, despite the context of increasing pressure to cut financial resources. This study aims to investigate if Italian state universities produce voluntary social reports and, if so, what they disclose, and also to explore their motivations to do so and the main difficulties encountered.Design/methodology/approach: Content analysis is applied to the total pool of Italian universities' social reports observed up to 2010. Also, a subsequent online survey was undertaken with preparers of those social reports.Findings: The findings indicate that a social report is not a common practice in all Italian universities. Subsequent online interviews and thematic analysis found that a key individual within the university played a pivotal role in developing a social report. In the pool of reports examined, there were few social and environmental aspects disclosed. Also the respondents to our survey highlighted that the main difficulty in the development of social reports was the lack of systematic collection of non-financial information within the university context.

Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest towards sustainability reporting from scholars all over the world, especially focusing on large corporations. Research has only recently been carried out regarding sustainability reporting in the public sector; however, very few studies have been published with reference to universities. In Italy, despite the fact that sustainability reporting is not mandatory, two guidelines have been issued to promote it within state universities. To date, only few studies have been published on this topic. To bridge this gap, the current work aims to review and assess the state of sustainability reporting in Italian state universities and therefore it contributes to the international debate about the development of sustainability reporting in the public sector. In doing so, this paper represents one of the first attempts at investigating sustainability reports in universities, and more broadly in the public sector.

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