Discussion of the Financial Systems of National Universities: Structural analysis of subsidies for operating expenses

The question of the rules that should govern the distribution of funds to each university has very important policy implications for the governance of national university corporations, as the preparation of the next medium-term plan for university corporations gets underway. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the distribution of subsidies for operating expenses that currently account for approximately 50% of the revenues of national university corporations, and clarify the limit in their calculation, to provide the basis for a discussion on the question above.

First, the determinants of the distribution of subsidies for operating expenses to education and research are sought through a structural analysis of the subsidy. As a result, it becomes clear that, the government still has some leeway in distributing competitive part of subsidies and tends to make a financing source guaranteed-type distribution; that is, the subsidy for the current fiscal year is distributed to universities that received a relatively smaller subsidy in the previous fiscal year. Second, the structural analysis of subsidies for operating expenses to affiliated hospitals shows an accounting disconnect between the current forms of budget and the book closing of the subsidy. This paper also points out that when developing a rule for distribution for the next medium-term plan, a discussion needs to be held after accounting defects are amended and the transparency of both revenues and expenditure is improved.