Costs and efficiency of higher education institutions in England: a DEA analysis

Abstract

As student numbers in the UK's higher education sector have expanded substantially during the last 15 years, it has become increasingly important for government to understand the structure of costs in higher education, thus allowing it to evaluate the potential for expansion and associated cost implications. This study applies Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to higher education institutions (HEIs) in England in the period 2000/01-2002/03 to assess the cost structure and the performance of various HEI groups. The paper continues and complements an earlier study by Johnes, Johnes and Thanassoulis (2008), who used parametric regression methods to analyse the same panel data. Interestingly, the DEA analysis provides estimates of subject-specific unit costs that are in the same ballpark as those provided by the parametric methods. We then extend the previous analysis by examining potential cost savings and output augmentations in different HEI groups using several different DEA models. The findings include a suggestion that substantial gains of the order of 20-27% are feasible if all potential savings are directed at raising student numbers so that each HEI exploits to the full not only operating and scale efficiency gains but also adjusts its student mix to maximise student numbers. Finally we use a Malmquist index approach to assess productivity change in UK HEIs. The results reveal that for a majority of HEIs productivity has actually decreased during the study period.

Universities in Mexico: a measure of its efficiency through data envelopment analysis with bootstrap

“…La mayoría de los estudios que analizan la parte de la enseñanza de las universidades se centran en el número de graduados a nivel licenciatura y a nivel de posgrado, como en el caso de Agasisti & Pérez-Esparrells (2010), Johnes (2008), Kantabutra & Tang (2010) y Wolszczak-Derlacz & Parteka (2011). Otra variable utilizada en el área de la enseñanza es la cantidad de alumnos matriculados a nivel licenciatura o posgrado, lo que se encuentra contemplado en los trabajos de Agasisti & Dal Bianco (2009), Beasley (1990), Ramírez & Alfaro (2013), Thanassoulis et al (2009), Tomkins & Green (1988).…”

“…Los resultados indican que las universidades autónomas superan a las universidades del gobierno en cuanto a la eficiencia de la investigación; además, las universidades en áreas provinciales y las facultades del grupo de ciencias de la salud son eficientes en térmi-nos de enseñanza. Thanassoulis, Kortelainen, Johnes & Johnes (2009) analizan la eficiencia en las instituciones de educación superior en Inglaterra y evalúan su estructura de costos, la eficiencia técnica y la productividad; los resultados revelan que para la mayoría de las instituciones tienen ineficiencia económica, y en cuanto a la productividad no existe crecimiento en el periodo de estudio. Athanassopoulos & Shale (1997) comparan 45 instituciones de educación superior en el Reino Unido, donde revisan la eficiencia técnica, obteniendo en la mayoría de las universidades una mala optimización de los recursos, por lo que realizan propuestas para maximizar la cantidad de alumnos graduados, así como mayor número de publicaciones de los profesores.…”

Kecekapan Teknik Institusi Pendidikan Tinggi Swasta di Malaysia

“…Kebanyakan kajian kecekapan IPT luar negara dan tempatan mengukur kecekapan IPT Tambahan lagi, kajian ini turut menyumbang kepada dapatan empirik tempatan dengan mengukur kecekapan lanjutan seperti kecekapan agihan dan kecekapan kos (Thanassoulis, Kortelainen, Johnes & Johnes 2009;Sherman & Zhu 2006;Coelli, Rao, O'Donnell & Battese 2005). Kedua-duanya diukur dengan menggunakan maklumat harga bagi data input dan output yang dikaji.…”

Combining the assumptions of variable and constant returns to scale in the efficiency evaluation of secondary schools

“…In the area of education, DEA has been widely used for the assessment of efficiency of the school provision at different levels (Grosskopf et al, 1999;Portela and Thanassoulis, 2001;Färe et al, 2006;Portela et al, 2012), universities and their departments (Avkiran, 2001;Thanassoulis et al, 2011), and the impact of education policies (Bradley et al, 2001;Grosskopf and Moutray, 2001). …”

“…Even if the true (best practice) technology is assumed to be VRS, the reference, or benchmark, CRS technology is often used as a part of the scale efficiency calculations. For the assessment of a particular education policy, it is common to use the Malmquist productivity index based on observations collected over a period of time, with its subsequent decompositions into different components (Johnes, 2008;Ouellette and Vierstraete, 2010;Thanassoulis et al, 2011).…”