Sustainability in Chinese Higher Educational Institutions’ Social Science Research: A Performance Interface toward Efficiency

Abstract

Sustainability issues in higher educational institutions' (HEIs) research, especially in the social science field, have attracted increasing levels of attention in higher education administration in recent decades as HEIs are confronted with a growing pressure worldwide to increase the efficiency of their research activities under a limited volume and relatively equitable division of public funding resources. This paper introduces a theoretical analysis framework based on a data envelopment analysis, separating the social science research process into a foundation stage and a construction stage, and then projecting each HEI into certain quadrants to form several clusters according to their overall and stage efficiencies and corresponding Malmquist Productivity Indices. Furthermore, the interfaces are formed in each cluster as feasible potential improvement directions. The empirical results in detail are demonstrated from a data set of Chinese HEIs in Jiangsu Province over the Twelfth Five-Year period as offering a closer approximation to the "China social science research best practice".

A Global Analysis of Universities Performance in the World Higher Education Institution Rankings

“…The preceding is a sample of how educational institutions make their decisions by building an action model that allows them to focus on counteracting the effects of the environment (Baum & Dahlin, 2007). Finally, for scholars like Wang and Hu (2017), universities' learning processes are part of the analysis they can conduct at the regional level. This process marks the path to follow to achieve better levels of reputation.…”

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The influence of using smart technologies for sustainable development in higher education institutions

“…Wals (2014) mentions that some universities find sustainability as an additional way of profiling and organizing themselves. However, the sustainability of universities can be promoted by skilled persons such as researchers, students, and academics, who have been viewed as the key component of sustainable development strategies by institutions and nations (Wang & Hu, 2017;Hodges et al, 2020). ESD is an approach that promotes interdisciplinary learning, problem-solving, critical thinking, and active learning to address sustainability challenges at various levels (UNESCO, 2021).…”

For the Sustainable Development of Universities: Exploring the External Factors Impacting Returned Early Career Academic’s Research Performance in China

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“…To be specific, this mixed-method study is intended to answer two questions: (1) what are the factors influencing Chinese RECAs' research performance? and (2) what is the prevalence of each factor? The RECAs in this research refers to the Chinese academics who are within six years (by 2019) of having obtained PhD degrees from universities not located in mainland China and having been appointed to academic positions in Chinese universities.…”