USF System Cost Model
The University of South Florida System consists of a linked model for institutions with separate accreditation, sharing strengths and cost efficiencies.
In 2001, the Florida Legislature established in statute that USF St. Petersburg and USF Sarasota-Manatee would be operated and maintained as separate organizational and budget entities of the University of South Florida; both were authorized to enter into central support service agreements with the Board of Trustees of The University of South Florida (USF).
As the USF system has matured, its Cost Allocation Model has been refined to more accurately allocate the costs related to these central support agreements. For the past two years, representatives of all the USF System institutions, with the assistance of a highly regarded national consultant in higher education, have collaborated on the development of a new Cost Allocation Model that reflects the current degree of interdependence of the institutions.
This collaborative effort was used to determine how the USF System shares costs and demonstrates through economies of scale that the overall cost of services for Florida taxpayers has been reduced. If these services were procured individually the cost would increase substantially. This is now an annual process of cost refinement which will include regional institution staff, system leadership, and the Board of Trustees.
The current cost allocations are linked here, and show current modeling that projects a reduction in system cost allocations over time.
The cost allocation process, as called for in legislation, is based on the System-Wide Services Paradigm model, included in the USF System Governance Policy, linked here.
The values that drive this process are:
- Auditability
- Simplicity with Transparency
- Scalability
- Consistency
- Integrity
- Collegiality
- Validity
