Higher Education Function Codes

Staff can get guidance on choosing the correct Higher Education Function Code for new KFS accounts. 

The Higher Education Function Code is an attribute of a KFS account. It is used to categorize expenses to reflect the type of activity the account is supporting. There are nine major functional categories, and each of these has more specific sub-categories in KFS:

• Instruction

• Research

• Public Service

• Academic Support

• Student Services

• Institutional Support

• Scholarships and Fellowships

• Auxiliary Enterprise

• Operations and Maintenance of Plant

On an Account eDoc, this code is located on the Account Maintenance tab.

Instruction

The instruction classification includes expenses for all activities that are part of an institution’s instruction program. Expenses for credit and noncredit courses; academic, vocational, and technical instruction; remedial and tutorial instruction. Expenses for departmental research also are included in this classification.

This classification excludes expenses for those academic personnel whose primary activity is administration—for example, academic deans.

Research

The research classification includes all expenses for activities specifically organized to produce research, whether commissioned by an agency external to the institution or separately budgeted by an organizational unit within the institution. Subject to those conditions, the classification includes expenses for individual and/or project research as well as that of institutes and research centers.

This classification does not include all sponsored programs nor is it necessarily limited to sponsored research, since internally supported research programs, if separately budgeted, might be included in this classification.

Expenses for departmental research that are separately budgeted and accounted for are included in this classification. They are internal awards that require the submission of a proposal and budget to the OVPR, which are awarded similar to external funding opportunities. Examples include SPARK Technology Commercialization and REP (Research Excellence Program) awards. However, the research classification does not include expenses for departmental research that are not separately budgeted. Departmental research that is not separately budgeted is included in the instructional category (15ID).

Public Service

The public service classification includes expenses for activities established primarily to provide non-instructional services for the benefit of individuals and groups that are external to the institution. These activities include:

• Community service programs (excluding instructional activities)

• Cooperative extension services.

• Included in this classification are conferences, institutes, general advisory services, reference bureaus, radio and television, consulting, and similar non-instructional services to particular sectors of the community.

Academic Support

The academic support classification includes expenses incurred to provide support services for the institution’s primary programs of instruction, research, and public service.

Ancillary Support includes expenses for organized activities that provide support services to the three primary programs of instruction, research, and public service but are not appropriately classified in those functions.

Student Services

The student services classification includes expenses incurred for offices of admissions and the registrar and activities that, as their primary purpose, contribute to students’ emotional and physical well-being and intellectual, cultural, and social development outside the context of the formal instruction program.

Auxiliary Services

An auxiliary enterprise exists to furnish goods or services to students, faculty, staff, other institutional departments, or incidentally to the general public, and charges a fee directly related to, although not necessarily equal to, the cost of the goods or services. The distinguishing characteristic of an auxiliary enterprise is that it is managed to operate as a self-supporting activity.

Institutional Support

The institutional support classification includes expenses for central, executive-level activities concerned with management and long-range planning for the entire institution.

Operation & Maintenance of Plant

The operation and maintenance of plant category includes all expenses for the administration, supervision, operation, maintenance, preservation, and protection of the institution’s physical plant. These expenses include items such as janitorial and utility services; repairs and ordinary or normal alterations of buildings, furniture, and equipment; care of grounds; maintenance and operation of buildings and other plant facilities; security; earthquake and disaster preparedness; safety; hazardous waste disposal; property, liability, and all other insurance relating to property; space and capital leasing; facility planning and management.

Scholarships and Fellowships

The scholarships and fellowships classification includes expenses for scholarships and fellowships—from restricted or unrestricted funds—in the form of grants that neither require the student to perform service to the institution as consideration for the grant nor require the student to repay the amount of the grant to the funding source. In public institutions, they may result from selection by the institution or from an entitlement program.