Bursar

Not to be confused with bursa (disambiguation).

See also: School Business Manager

A bursar (derived from "bursa", Latin for purse) is a senior professional financial administrator in a school or university. In the United States bursars generally only exist at the level of higher education, but in Australia, Great Britain and other countries they are common at lower levels of education as well.

Billing of student tuition accounts are the responsibility of the Office of the Bursar. This involves sending bills and making payment plans with the ultimate goal of getting the student accounts paid off. Bursars are not necessarily involved in the financial aid process. The exact duties of the bursar vary from institution to institution. At many they only deal with student finances, but in some places they also deal with some faculty finance issues. Elsewhere they also oversee accounts receivable, or the payments that the university gets from outside organizations it performs services for. In some institutions, such as the University of Georgia all money held by the institution is the bursars responsibility.

The Bursar Statement is also known as a tuition bill or a student account bill.

The bursar is often under the controller. For example at Barnard College there is a position of Associate Controller-Bursar. In other cases the bursar has the same level as the controller and they are both under the director or vice president of finance. Bursar has historically been a more common term in Britain, but has gained use in American higher education over the last few decades. Some universities in the United States still have a position of Director of Student Financial Services that is similar to the position of a bursar. At the University of Pennsylvania there is an associate vice president who essentially combines the role of a bursar (using the student financial services title) and that of a registrar.

Notable Bursars

• John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946), second bursar of King's College, Cambridge (1924-?)
• The Rev. Prof. Norman Walker Porteous (1898–2003), first bursar of University of Edinburgh, (1916)
• Codebreaker Derek Taunt (1917–2004), Jesus College, Cambridge
• Footballer Billy Liddell (1922–2001), Liverpool University (?-1984)
• Cecil Goodden (1879–1969), Harrow School

In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels there is a character called The Bursar. This character, like most other faculty members of Pratchett's Unseen University, is almost always referred to by his job title.

See also

• Treasurer
• School business manager