“…When dealing with inflexible (not completely under control) inputs, Tyagi et al (2009) recommend using the output-oriented approach. Moreover, numerous studies have adopted the outputoriented model for evaluating the efficiencies of universities/ departments (Abdullah et al, 2017;Barra et al, 2018;Berbegal-Mirabent, 2018;De La Torre et al, 2017b;Duan, 2019;Gralka et al, 2019;Guironnet and Peypoch, 2018;Jauhar et al, 2018;Klumpp, 2018;Lehmann et al, 2018;Mikušová, 2017;Quiroga-Martínez et al, 2018;Visbal-Cadavid et al, 2017;Wang, 2019). The output-oriented strategy was used in this study as well, because the input sources were difficult to control and it was more critical to maximize the outputs, which is consistent with the literature.…”