The article refers to research of recommendations of financial reports preparation and presentation by higher educational institutions of different countries. In order to study the structure of financial reports, the sets of financial statements of National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Oxford University and Yale University are compared. The distinctions between financial reports of three determined universities are substantiated by 7 features: the level of information disclosure, sources of funding, structure of financial, managerial and budgetary reports, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of Notes and general level of financial independence. The author compared the structure and content of university financial statements as well as determined correlation between informational filling of public entities financial reports and the level of democracy. The sources of funding for three universities are compared. The paper determines the reasons of limited financial sources of revenue for Ukrainian universities.