Ratio Analysis of Financial KPI in the Higher Education Sector: a case study

Based on observations that the nature of universities in the Higher Education sector in the UK appear to be changing from purely charitable organisations and moving into the business sector, two interrelated questions arise, which build one on the other. These are:
1. Can ratio analysis of financial KPI be applied to universities in the HE sector in the UK and where appropriate a set of benchmarks extrapolated based upon an average score?
2. Are there other measures of financial KPI specific to the HE sector that can be developed to augment these?
For the purposes of this research a case study comprised of a representative sample of nine universities in the UK was selected from the Russell Group (Table 1.2) because they have a shared vision, mission and set of objectives that should allow for comparative analysis between them. There are two in Scotland, one in Wales, one in Northern Ireland, and the five highest ranked English universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2015-2016.
The case study includes: University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Imperial College London (ICL), University College London (UCL), The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE&PS), University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, Cardiff University, and Queen's University Belfast (QUB). The Appendix has juxtaposed tabulated data and graphs illustrating the financial KPI over a period of ten years for each university. A must-read for anyone interested in the Higher Education sector, or, attending any other university who wants to draw comparisons between their own university and the Russell Group.
Author's note: the data for much of this research came from 2006-2016 Annual Reports, and so, arguably, provides a pre-Brexit benchmark against which post-Brexit data and performance can be measured.