Thesis (MComm (Business Management))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / Universities manage their administrative and financial operations traditionally by means of cost centres in the form of faculties, departments and divisions. In these cost centres financial performance is purely measured by comparing actual expenses with drawn up budgets. During performance measurement only direct costs allocated to cost centres are taken into account. Often, indirect costs are not taken into account which leaves an erroneous impression about the real cost of a certain cost centre. However, it is of importance for education managers to take cost management into consideration as a primary tool to manage institutions of higher education. Accurate cost information is an indispensable management aid, especially in a changing and dynamic environment. During budget allocations mostly only direct costs are taken into account. This also happens when the financial performance of academic departments, faculties and other entities are measured. The utilisation of a full cost approach could add substantial value to current management information. The starting point of this study is by placing a perspective on problems arising from the utilisation of cost allocation techniques by means of a case study from which activity based costing and responsibility centre management can solve the problem. Throughout this study it was attempted to emphasise the relevance between activity based costing and responsibility centre management and the focus was on how both budget allocation models could be applied in an integrated context. During the allocation of income and indirect costs the question normally arises on which basis these components are to be allocated to faculties and departments at a university. Attention has been given to both these components to establish which method / basis is the most applicable for the allocation thereof. The aim was to generally keep cost drivers as simple as possible. The cost drivers used need to bear the approval of deans to ensure the credibility of the budget allocation model. However, cost drivers could well be investigated continually to consider their applicability against alternative cost drivers. The allocation of budget amounts to faculties stemming from the main budget of a university is normally a dilemma. Therefore, a budget allocation model has been developed taking the financial performance of faculties into consideration to determine the budget allocation of each individual faculty.