Abstract. This paper represents an original work as regards the analysis of the costs structure in a higher education institution in Romania, aiming at identifying a model for calculating the minimum tuition fee and the marginal student so as for the principle of managerial and financial efficiency stipulated in the new law of education to be complied with. In the calculation process, all the costs within a university are decomposed and a cost-per-subject is developed consisting of all the costs involved in the entire teaching process of a school subject, irrespective of its type. The need for analysis was triggered by the evidence that each university establishes the level of tuition fees in an arbitrary manner, “in accordance with the market”, but without having a model for direct and indirect cost distribution at the level of the programs of study.
Keyword: higher education, cost decomposition, resource allocation, efficiency.