Formation and Distribution of Financial Resources of a Higher Educational Institution in the Russian Federation: Improving the Methodological Support

Abstract

This article offers some recommendations on university budget planning based on an empirical study of cost distribution at various Russian universities. Russian universities appeared to allocate their budgetary funds by determining the average salary of the teaching staff. The authors developed some improvements for the existing academic staff payroll system to optimize the costs of the academic process. The teaching staff payroll should be based on the number of students and the share of the teaching staff payroll in the allocated state subsidy as part of the state assignment, which is non-regulatory today. The results obtained are of practical importance and can improve the financial and economic activities of universities, thus contributing to the transparency and efficiency of the financial resource distribution. Research prospects include further critical understanding of normative per capita financing principle as part of transition to university network cooperation.