This paper describes an instructional case used with final year undergraduate management accounting students, designed to introduce the cohort to the use of case studies in learning. The case focuses on the needs for cost savings in a fictional UK University and can be used to cover a range of learning outcomes, including those associated with control, budgeting and the funding of higher education. Use of the case in classroom situations has been a consistently positive experience for staff and students and, in particular, the high level of student engagement and positive feedback in relation to the case has been encouraging.