Social and environmental reporting within Australian universities: an accountability perspective

Purpose This study aims to examine the relationships between social and environmental reporting (SER) and the size and university ranking of 39 Australian universities. The study examines Australian universities and the impact of size on corporate social responsibility (CSR) using an accountability model. Not many studies have considered this relationship in the university environment. Design/methodology/approach The study uses content analysis by applying the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) disclosure index to university annual reports and adopting the accountability model of Coy et al. (2001) to examine the impact of the size of Australian universities on SER, measured by the number of student enrolments. Data was collected in 2014. This classification of Australian universities based on size was adopted from Universities Australia (2022). The authors collected data about the academic ranking of Australian universities using the Shanghai ranking (Shanghai, 2022). Findings The authors predict and find that there is no relationship between SER and size. As the authors expected, the level of SER is marginally influenced by the world academic ranking of universities. The findings provide significant insight into the SER practices of Australian universities. The authors expand the SER literature and practice nationally and internationally. Originality/value Few studies have explored CSR in Australian universities. The current study expands the debate on SER using an accountability model in Australian universities. This paper describes CSR in 39 Australian universities and the importance of size and university ranking. The results offer new insights into the relationship between CSR in Australian universities and their size and ranking.