Cost Drivers Estruturais e os Custos Em Uma Universidade Federal Brasileira/STRUCTURAL COST DRIVERS AND COSTS IN A BRAZILIAN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

The aim of this study is to verify the relationship between structural cost drivers and costs, in a Brazilian federal university, represented by costs with personnel, charges and social benefits, and the average cost per student. A descriptive and quantitative research was carried out based on data from the period 2000 to 2019, from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), whose results allowed us to conclude that the number of inactive faculty members is the structural cost driver with the highest relation to the costs with personnel, charges and social benefits, the number of students in basic education is the structural cost driver with the highest relation to the average cost per student in basic education, and the number of graduate students per professor is the structural cost driver with the highest relation to the average cost per graduate student. The contributions of the study are related to the filling of the gap in the literature about strategic choices based on the economic structure of the organization, represented by the structural cost drivers, in Brazilian federal higher education institutions, besides providing explanations to the community about costs in these institutions based on this case, and allowing university managers to understand the actions that may be linked to the increase or decrease of university costs.