The French Universities since the Transition to Self-Government: Towards New Tools of Financial Analysis?

French universities have undergone a transition towards financial and operational autonomy since the passage of the RCE law in 2007. Since then, some of them experienced a financially constrained environment and, more specifically, had to dip in their reserves to balance their budget. This context raises the question of how financial analysis could be developed in order to help universities manage the uncertain adjustment between their resources and expenses. This article has a triple purpose. First, in the light of the new public management literature, we propose a public financial management model for the university, which we compare with both the financial management models of a firm and of a local government. This leads to analyze the specificities of existing financial analysis tools for universities. Second, we analyze the reasons why French universities experienced difficulties since the RCE. Lastly, after we define the concept of sustainability, we highlight the necessity of a pluri-annual vision of financial analysis for French universities, and we propose a prospective approach.