SELECTED STATE UNIVERSITIES' REPORTING OF ENROLLMENT AND OTHER HEIDI DATA

Michigan Office of the
Auditor General
Thomas H. McTavish, C.P.A.
Auditor General

EXECUTIVE DIGEST #3330001
SELECTED STATE UNIVERSITIES' REPORTING OF ENROLLMENT AND OTHER HEIDI DATA

INTRODUCTION
This report, issued in June 2001, contains the results of our performance audit of Selected State Universities' Reporting of Enrollment and Other Higher Education Institutional Data Inventory (HEIDI) Data, including the provisions of the appropriations acts for higher education and the State Budget Office (SBO) annual budget letter, for fiscal year 1999-2000.

AUDIT PURPOSE
This performance audit was conducted under the provisions of Section 701, Act 298, P.A. 2000, which mandates that the Auditor General audit enrollments at five public universities.

BACKGROUND
The 15 State universities are required to report certain enrollment and other HEIDI data to the Legislature and SBO on a fiscal year basis. Instructions for reporting the data are included in the boilerplate of the annual appropriations act for higher education and in the SBO annual budget letter to State universities.

The State budget director and the House and Senate Fiscal Agencies made substantial changes to the requirements for reporting enrollment and other HEIDI data starting in fiscal year 1998-99. This was the second reporting period after the changes were made to merge the HEIDI database with the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System to eliminate duplicate reporting systems.

For fiscal year 1999-2000, gross appropriations to the 15 State universities totaled $1,499,659,809 and the total number of fiscal year equated students enrolled at the 15 universities was 227,995. For the 5 selected universities audited for fiscal year 1999-2000, gross appropriations totaled $550,681,079 and the total number of fiscal year equated students enrolled was 82,931.

AUDIT OBJECTIVE AND CONCLUSION
Audit Objective: To assess the accuracy of the State universities' reporting of selected enrollment and other HEIDI data as required by the annual appropriations act for higher education and the SBO annual budget letter to universities.

Conclusion: Our assessment disclosed that 4 of the 5 universities generally reported selected enrollment and other HEIDI data as required. However, our assessment disclosed one material misstatement:

Michigan Technological University (MTU) did not include in its tuition and fee report to SBO its required computing access fee that was assessed resident undergraduate students. As a result, SBO was unaware that MTU increased resident undergraduate tuition and fees in excess of 3% for fiscal year 1999?2000, which, according to provisions in the appropriations act boilerplate, required a reduction of approximately $778,000 in MTU's fiscal year 2000-01 State appropriations. (Finding 1)
Our assessment also disclosed reportable conditions related to university compliance with reporting requirement changes, definitions in reporting instructions, and the enrollment count date (Findings 2 through 4).

AUDIT SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
Our audit scope was to examine 5 of the 15 State universities' records supporting selected enrollment student credit hours and other Higher Education Institutional Data Inventory data relating to tuition and fees and general fund expenditures and transfers reported to the State Budget Office for fiscal year 1999-2000. This included verifying resident undergraduate tuition and fees reported and comparing reported instructional and noninstructional expenditures with the audited financial statements. Our audit was conducted in accordance with Government Auditing Standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States and, accordingly, included such tests of the records and such other auditing procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances.

We randomly selected 5 universities for audit:

     Central Michigan University
     Grand Valley State University
     Michigan Technological University
     University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
     University of Michigan - Dearborn

We tested fiscal year 1999-2000 reported student credit hours and selected other HEIDI data for accuracy and adherence to the appropriations act and SBO annual budget letter requirements.

AGENCY RESPONSES
Our audit report contains 4 findings and 4 corresponding recommendations. SBO's and the universities' preliminary responses indicate that they agreed with 2 recommendations and disagreed with 2 recommendations.

Full Audit Report - #3330001 - SELECTED STATE UNIVERSITIES' REPORTING OF ENROLLMENT AND OTHER HEIDI DATA

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This page was created on June 26, 2001.


INTRODUCTION This report, issued in June 2001, contains the results of our performance audit of Selected State Universities' Reporting of Enrollment and Other Higher Education Institutional Data Inventory (HEIDI) Data, including the provisions of the appropriations acts for higher education and the State Budget Office (SBO) annual budget letter, for fiscal year 1999-2000.

AUDIT PURPOSE This performance audit was conducted under the provisions of Section 701, Act 298, P.A. 2000, which mandates that the Auditor General audit enrollments at five public universities.

BACKGROUND The 15 State universities are required to report certain enrollment and other HEIDI data to the Legislature and SBO on a fiscal year basis. Instructions for reporting the data are included in the boilerplate of the annual appropriations act for higher education and in the SBO annual budget letter to State universities. The State budget director and the House and Senate Fiscal Agencies made substantial changes to the requirements for reporting enrollment and other HEIDI data starting in fiscal year 1998-99. This was the second reporting period after the changes were made to merge the HEIDI database with the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System to eliminate duplicate reporting systems. For fiscal year 1999-2000, gross appropriations to the 15 State universities totaled $1,499,659,809 and the total number of fiscal year equated students enrolled at the 15 universities was 227,995. For the 5 selected universities audited for fiscal year 1999-2000, gross appropriations totaled $550,681,079 and the total number of fiscal year equated students enrolled was 82,931.

AUDIT OBJECTIVE AND CONCLUSION Audit Objective: To assess the accuracy of the State universities' reporting of selected enrollment and other HEIDI data as required by the annual appropriations act for higher education and the SBO annual budget letter to universities. Conclusion: Our assessment disclosed that 4 of the 5 universities generally reported selected enrollment and other HEIDI data as required. However, our assessment disclosed one material misstatement: Michigan Technological University (MTU) did not include in its tuition and fee report to SBO its required computing access fee that was assessed resident undergraduate students. As a result, SBO was unaware that MTU increased resident undergraduate tuition and fees in excess of 3% for fiscal year 1999?2000, which, according to provisions in the appropriations act boilerplate, required a reduction of approximately $778,000 in MTU's fiscal year 2000-01 State appropriations. (Finding 1) Our assessment also disclosed reportable conditions related to university compliance with reporting requirement changes, definitions in reporting instructions, and the enrollment count date (Findings 2 through 4).

AUDIT SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY Our audit scope was to examine 5 of the 15 State universities' records supporting selected enrollment student credit hours and other Higher Education Institutional Data Inventory data relating to tuition and fees and general fund expenditures and transfers reported to the State Budget Office for fiscal year 1999-2000. This included verifying resident undergraduate tuition and fees reported and comparing reported instructional and noninstructional expenditures with the audited financial statements. Our audit was conducted in accordance with Government Auditing Standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States and, accordingly, included such tests of the records and such other auditing procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We randomly selected 5 universities for audit: Central Michigan University Grand Valley State University Michigan Technological University University of Michigan - Ann Arbor University of Michigan - Dearborn We tested fiscal year 1999-2000 reported student credit hours and selected other HEIDI data for accuracy and adherence to the appropriations act and SBO annual budget letter requirements.

AGENCY RESPONSES Our audit report contains 4 findings and 4 corresponding recommendations. SBO's and the universities' preliminary responses indicate that they agreed with 2 recommendations and disagreed with 2 recommendations.