Purpose: This paper investigates the management accounting structure of higher education institutions in Greece and their management’s willingness to adopt cost-effective strategies and proactively encourage structural changes in order to improve its modus operandi and ultimately, provide a higher quality working environment for its staff and students. Design/methodology/approach: Through a qualitative field research which was carried out in all Greek higher education institutions. Findings: The qualitative findings that derive from the field interviews indicate that management has myopically disregarded these issues or simply did not understand their importance. Research limitations/implications: Problems were encountered during the interviews. The results suggest that not all interview questions were understood by the respondents, which could be caused by the use of terms and concepts during the interviews with which the respondents were unfamiliar. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the body of literature because it focuses on Universities in Greece, their managerial pitfalls and initiatives to improve conditions, an under-researched area.