We're championing Integrated Reporting: read our case study

There is a big drive in the Higher Education sector to improve external reporting. A number of institutions have been participating in an integrated reporting project which aims to get universities to explain better how they use resources to create value.

Integrated reporting aims to highlight the various forms of capital that determine the value of the University, and include financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relationship, and natural capital. With more than 12,000 staff and more than 35,000 students, we understand the significance of our impact of these varying capitals and their role in value creation and longevity of our institution. 

We incorporated IR into our  2015/16 Annual Report and Accounts to communicate a clear, integrated narrative that demonstrates our overall performance and value. The IR framework was developed by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC).

The University has been using integrated reporting as a driver to tell a better story to everybody, to translate complexity into something simpler and to use one set of data – have one version of the truth – both in our management accounts and audited financial statements

Phil McNaull

Since 2014 the University’s Annual Report and Accounts have been improving the quality of reporting and each year since has seen further developments in reporting.

ACCA, the global body for professional accountants, recently published a case study on the work that the University has been carrying out, which you can read below. In the next academic year, the Leadership Foundation will be supported by the Funding Councils to work with the IIRC and the British Universities Finance Directors Group (BUFDG), to investigate how integrated thinking and reporting can be applied more widely across higher education, in the same way that is has been incorporated into many other sectors of the economy and across the world. In recent years BUFDG have encouraged universities to adopt Integrated reporting and supported and have guided us through our journey.

Read the ACCA Case Study

The University of Edinburgh’s annual report and accounts