The accounting of cultural heritage assets of Italian Universities’ Museums: groking the third mission

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are becoming more aware of the role they might play for the sustainable development and social value creation of societies and countries. The so-called third mission translates in actions the dialogue between universities and societies, and universities and stakeholders. In Italy, recent normative changes towards accrual accounting have asked universities to measure and disclose their cultural heritage assets. The switch from “pure” financial accounting requirements cash-based to a more mature accrual accounting system posed the challenge of the intellectual capital valorization. The cultural heritage comprises “university collections, museums, archives, libraries, botanical gardens, astronomical observatories, monuments of significance”. The current lack of accounting principles to be used in preparing such disclosures have required universities to value or impair their heritage book values. The study comments the role of accounting in shaping the reality within the context of Italian Public Universities.