This report summarises the results of the annual audits of public universities, their subsidiaries and the state training providers for the year ended 31 December 2014, and various other audits, and completes my reporting on the 2014 annual audit cycle.

All universities and state training providers received clear audit opinions on their financial statements, controls and key performance indicators. A similar number of financial and information system control weaknesses were reported to management in 2014, although the number of unresolved issues from the previous year increased. We also reviewed the annual and long service leave liabilities of the tertiary education sector and highlighted that universities need to continue to manage this liability.

Overall the institutions were less prepared for audit this year, with fewer achieving our best practice status for good financial controls and reporting practices.

In this report we have continued to expand our reporting of selected financial indicators and key performance information for universities and state training providers. This includes a summary of the impact of a revised funding approach for state training providers. Some of this information has already been reported in individual annual reports. However, I hope that inclusion of this information in a single report will provide Parliament with useful overall information for its monitoring of tertiary education sector performance.