Postsecondary Education Facilities Inventory and Classification Manual (FICM)

FICM Glossary

Please choose from the following letters to find your FICM glossary term.

A-D | E-H | I-L | M-P | Q-T | U-Z

Estimated Replacement Cost: The estimated cost to replace the building at the time of inventory.

Facilities: Any physical structure or space required by the institution for the performance of its programs and related activities.

Facilities Inventory: A database containing statistical information on buildings, including both building and room/space data as defined in this glossary.

FICE: Federal Interagency Committee on Education. A 6-digit identification code originally created by the Federal Interagency Committee on Education (FICE). The code was used to identify all schools doing business with the Office of Education during the early sixties. This code is no longer used in IPEDS; it has been replaced by the IPEDS unit ID.

Fixed Equipment: Permanently attached appurtenances such as elevators, fire protection systems, lighting, plumbing, heating, ventilation, and built-in air conditioning systems (excluding window or console air conditioning units that require no duct work or cooling towers).

Functional Categories and Codes: A set of categories or codes to allocate space across functional categories (e.g., instruction, research, public service, academic support). This is used primarily to link space allocations to financial data or to institutional missions (e.g., the proportion of space used for public service) or to analyze and compare space allocations across institutions according to commonly used functional categories. See section 5.5.8 of Building and Space Optional Data Element Discussion; for a detailed description of functional categories, see appendix B.

GASB: The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) establishes accounting standards for local and state entities including governmental colleges and universities.

Gross Area: Gross Area is the sum of all areas on all floors of a building included within the outside faces of its exterior walls, including all vertical penetration areas, for circulation and shaft areas that connect one floor to another. See section 3.2, Definitions of Building Areas.

HEGIS: The Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) system was conducted by the NCES between 1966 and 1985. This system comprised several surveys of institutions that were accredited at the college level by an agency recognized by the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education. These surveys collected institution-level data on such topics as institutional characteristics, enrollment, degrees conferred, salaries, employees, financial statistics, libraries, and others. HEGIS surveys were sent to approximately 3,400 accredited institutions of higher education. HEGIS surveys were incorporated into IPEDS after 1985 (see IPEDS).