University accountability in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland: 1992–1994

Mandatory versus voluntary disclosures

“…In this respect, many factors have been analyzed, with disparate results. These include factors such as population size (Albalate, 2013;García-Sánchez et al, 2013), the influence of technology (Xiao et al, 2004), the political commitment of the population (Jorge et al, 2011), corruption (Pina et al, 2010), the political ideology of the government (Guillamón et al, 2011;Albalate, 2013), the influence of voluntary/mandatory information disclosure policies (Bajo et al, 2009;Baginski et al, 2004) or the maturity of the law in this respect (Banks et al, 1997). Taking into account the findings of our review of the literature, we propose the following hypotheses.…”

“…All of these functions require time, and so public organizations in countries where a FOI Act has been in force for longer will be better prepared to provide the information required by law. Therefore, the question of how long FOI legislation has been in existence can be a determinant factor in the information disclosure made by local government, as discussed in studies by Banks et al (1997) and by Gallego et al (2009). Accordingly, we consider the possible relationship between the maturity of a FOI law and the mandatory disclosure of public information, and propose the following hypothesis:…”

Extent of Disclosure in the Annual Reports of Malaysian Federal Statutory Bodies

“…Coy and Dixon, 2004;Coy et al, 1993;Dixon et al, 1991;Nelson et al, 1997). Banks et al (1997), for example, assessed disclosures in the 1992 to 1994 annual reports of universities in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. They found that there was a lack of quantity or quality disclosure.…”

“…Blanco et al (2011) and Banks et al (1997) reported an overall low disclosure index on information published in the annual reports of Canadian local governments and universities in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, respectively. More specifically, certain disclosure areas such as human resources and asset management showed low levels of disclosure, as reported by Herawaty and Hoque (2007) and Schneider and Samkin (2008).…”

Are Australian Universities Making Good Use of ICT for CSR Reporting?

“…Therefore, issues such as performance and accountability have become key questions in the higher education sector. Previous studies have highlighted the pressures imposed on universities in many Western countries, such as New Zealand and the UK [49], to provide more detailed and wider ranging information, especially in relation to the disclosure of university actions for accountability purposes. In fact, the increased use of sustainability reporting by universities has become a symbol of the ever-growing demands by stakeholders for more transparency and accountability in the corporate sphere [50].…”