Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the quality of voluntary intellectual capital (IC) by universities in New Zealand, Australia, and the UK. Design/methodology/approach – An IC framework was developed to measure IC reporting in the university sector. Content analysis was used to analyse the 2011 annual reports before a three-year comparative analysis of 90 universities (eight New Zealand universities, 38 Australian universities, and 44 UK universities) was undertaken. Findings – New Zealand and Australian universities outperformed the UK universities in terms of IC disclosures. Additionally, the study found moderate increases in the levels of IC disclosures over the period of the study. The quality of IC disclosures by New Zealand universities was generally higher than their Australian and UK counterparts. Internal capital and human capital were the most disclosed categories with external capital being the least frequently disclosed in all three countries. However, the quality of external capital disclosures was higher than internal and human capital. Finally, most IC disclosures were narrative in nature. Practical implications – The framework developed in this study could be adapted, further enhanced, and then applied to exploring IC disclosures in higher educational institutes in other jurisdictions. Originality/value – This is the first comparative analysis of IC disclosures made by universities in three countries.
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