The Investigation On Internal Control In Universities

In recent years, the rapid development of Chinese Universities presents the characters of the diversification of funding resource, the variety of business and the complexity of risk, which bring new requirements for the internal control of them. However, since teaching and research have always been the focus of Universities, and we don’t pay enough attention to the internal control of economic activities, the construction of the internal control can’t be compatible with the speedy expansion. Therefore, it is an urgent need to strengthen the construction of the internal control of Chinese Universities. There are only few researches on the internal control of Chinese Universities and we lack a set of complete and unified internal control system. Many of the existing studies learn from the theory of internal control system, most of which come from the COSO report. Although they have been adapted and revised a little based on the current situation of Chinese Universities, these studies don’t present important reference for design and selection of internal control for Chinese Universities.The current paper focuses on the application of The Internal Control Standard of Administrative Institutions (Temp), which is promulgated by Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China on November29,2012. The thesis begins with the analysis of basic theories and institution background of the internal control, borrows ideas from the existing research findings and analyzes the goal, principle and features of the internal control of Chinese Universities. The paper takes F University for example and analyzes the current situation and existing problems of the internal control of it. In limited space, the importance is attached to offering appropriate measures to improve internal control quality in organizational structures and supporting measures, payments in control activities, government purchases, fixed assets, construction projects, contracts and the internal control supervision. This research has some practice significance and reference for the internal control of other Universities to make the economic activities of Universities legal, secure national assets and offer better service to researching, teaching and managing.The thesis falls into seven chapters:Chapter1is the introduction, proposing study background and significance and illustrating ideas, methods and expected contributions. Chapter2,3and4serves as the theoretical parts:Chapter2acts as the literature review, giving a comprehensive overview about three aspects of the current study of the internal control of the enterprise and universities:the construction of the internal control, the frame of the internal control and the valuation of the internal control. Chapter3focuses on the basic theories and background, begins with the definitions of internal control, and illustrates4stages of internal control:internal check, accounting and management control, internal control factors and internal control framework, and so on. Chapter4sums up the concepet,goals, principles and features of internal control in universities based on the Standard and analysis of existing problems.The core of the thesis is the last three chapters. Chapter5focuses on the current situation of internal control in F University. Chapter6is the ways to improve the internal control in F University. Chapter7is the inspiration and suggestion.The main contribution of the paper is putting forward the framework of the internal control in F University according to the new standards issued by financial ministry, finding out the problems of the internal control in F University, and finally proposing reasonable measures to improve the internal control quality. The paper has some practical significance and there is a reference to other universities.In addition, we get the following two inspirations in research:(1)Universities should combine the new standards with own practices;(2)Universities should combine the new standards with the relevant institutions.In order to further improve the internal control quality in Universities, we put forward six pieces of suggestions as follow:(1)Construct the framework of the internal control according to the new standard;(2)Enhance the wareness of risk and establish the risk evaluation mechanism;(3)Strengthen personnel education and focus on the construction of internal control team; (4)Improve relevant systems and offer the internal control safeguard;(5)Take advantage of campus network and let the internal control work as a supervisory role;(6)Consolidate the audit responsibility.However, there are still some shortcomings in this paper. On the one hand, since some information related to internal control in F University belongs to the security category, the information that we can get is not enough, on the other hand, the problems in F University alone may not be representative of those in the other universities. Besides, with limited professional knowledge and lack of rich experience, it is necessary for us to further study the other aspects of internal control in universities, such as risk assessment, budget examination and valuation, financing and investment.