SELECTED STATE UNIVERSITIES' REPORTING OF ENROLLMENT AND OTHER HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONAL DATA INVENTORY (HEIDI) DATA

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

EXECUTIVE DIGEST #3330000

SELECTED STATE UNIVERSITIES' REPORTING OF ENROLLMENT AND OTHER HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONAL DATA INVENTORY (HEIDI) DATA

INTRODUCTION

This report, issued in June 2000, 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 act for higher education (Act 93, P.A. 1999) and the State Budget Office (SBO) annual budget letter for fiscal year 1998-99.

AUDIT PURPOSE

This performance audit was conducted under the provisions of Section 701, Act 93, P.A. 1999, 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 for fiscal year 1998-99. The changes to the reporting instructions were made to merge the HEIDI database with the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System to eliminate duplicate reporting systems. The changes were retroactive for the universities' 1998-99 academic and fiscal year.
For fiscal year 1998-99, gross appropriations to the 15 State universities totaled approximately $1.4 billion and the total number of fiscal year equated students enrolled was over 223,000. For the 5 selected universities audited for fiscal year 1998-99, gross appropriations totaled approximately $700 million and the total number of fiscal year equated students enrolled was approximately 104,000.

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 did not disclose inaccuracies that could have caused a material misstatement of the enrollment and other HEIDI data reported by the selected universities. However, at all 5 universities, we noted instances of inaccurate reporting relative to one or more of the enrollment reporting requirements (Findings 1, 3, and 4). We also noted the need for the reporting instructions to define "correspondence course" and "Michigan instructional activity" (Finding 2).

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 general fund expenditures and transfers reported to the State Budget Office for fiscal year 1998-99. This included comparing reported instructional and non-instructional 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:
  Grand Valley State University
  Michigan State University
  Saginaw Valley State University
  Wayne State University
  Western Michigan University
We tested fiscal year 1998-99 reported student credit hours and selected other HEIDI data for accuracy and adherence to the annual appropriations act and SBO annual budget letter requirements.

AGENCY RESPONSES

Our audit report contains 4 findings and 4 corresponding recommendations. The State Budget Office and the universities generally concurred with the recommendations.

Full Audit Report - #3330000 - Selected State Universities' Reporting of Enrollment and Other Higher Education Institutional Data Inventory (HEIDI) Data

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INTRODUCTION This report, issued in June 2000, 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 act for higher education (Act 93, P.A. 1999) and the State Budget Office (SBO) annual budget letter for fiscal year 1998-99.

AUDIT PURPOSE This performance audit was conducted under the provisions of Section 701, Act 93, P.A. 1999, 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 for fiscal year 1998-99. The changes to the reporting instructions were made to merge the HEIDI database with the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System to eliminate duplicate reporting systems. The changes were retroactive for the universities' 1998-99 academic and fiscal year. For fiscal year 1998-99, gross appropriations to the 15 State universities totaled approximately $1.4 billion and the total number of fiscal year equated students enrolled was over 223,000. For the 5 selected universities audited for fiscal year 1998-99, gross appropriations totaled approximately $700 million and the total number of fiscal year equated students enrolled was approximately 104,000.

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 did not disclose inaccuracies that could have caused a material misstatement of the enrollment and other HEIDI data reported by the selected universities. However, at all 5 universities, we noted instances of inaccurate reporting relative to one or more of the enrollment reporting requirements (Findings 1, 3, and 4). We also noted the need for the reporting instructions to define "correspondence course" and "Michigan instructional activity" (Finding 2).

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 general fund expenditures and transfers reported to the State Budget Office for fiscal year 1998-99. This included comparing reported instructional and non-instructional 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: Grand Valley State University Michigan State University Saginaw Valley State University Wayne State University Western Michigan University We tested fiscal year 1998-99 reported student credit hours and selected other HEIDI data for accuracy and adherence to the annual appropriations act and SBO annual budget letter requirements.

AGENCY RESPONSES Our audit report contains 4 findings and 4 corresponding recommendations. The State Budget Office and the universities generally concurred with the recommendations.