Measuring the research performance of Chinese higher education institutions using data envelopment analysis

This study uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) to examine the relative efficiency in the production of research of 109 Chinese regular universities in 2003 and 2004. Output variables measure the impact and productivity of research; input variables reflect staff, students, capital and resources. Mean efficiency is just over 90% when all input and output variables are included in the model, and this falls to just over 80% when student-related input variables are excluded from the model. The rankings of the universities across models and time periods are highly significantly correlated. Further investigation suggests that mean research efficiency is higher in comprehensive universities compared to specialist universities, and in universities located in the coastal region compared to those in the western region of China. The former result offers support for the recent merger activity which has taken place in Chinese higher education.

[1]  Raymond L. Raab,et al.  Efficiency and perceived quality of the nation's “top 25” National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges: An application of data envelopment analysis to higher education , 1994 .

[2]  Jill Johnes,et al.  International Handbook on the Economics of Education , 2007 .

[3]  Sung-ko Li,et al.  Measuring the Research Performance of Chinese Higher Education Institutions: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis , 2000 .

[4]  A. U.S.,et al.  Measuring the efficiency of decision making units , 2003 .

[5]  Jill Johnes,et al.  Higher education institutions costs and efficiency: Taking the decomposition a further step , 2009 .

[6]  D. F. Coleman,et al.  An efficiency review of university departments , 1997, Int. J. Syst. Sci..

[7]  N. Avkiran.  INVESTIGATING TECHNICAL AND SCALE EFFICIENCIES OF AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES THROUGH DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS , 2001 .

[8]  Jill Johnes.  Measuring teaching efficiency in higher education: An application of data envelopment analysis to economics graduates from UK Universities 1993 , 2006, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[9]  井尻 雄士.  Creative and innovative approaches to the science of management , 1993 .

[10]  M. Abbott,et al.  The efficiency of Australian universities: a data envelopment analysis , 2003 .

[11]  Gary Madden,et al.  Measuring Public Sector Efficiency: A Study of Economics Departments at Australian Universities , 1997 .

[12]  Lihua Wang,et al.  Higher Education in China , 2005 .

[13]  Andrew C. Worthington,et al.  Efficiency, technology and productivity change in Australian universities, 1998–2003 , 2008 .

[14]  A. Charnes,et al.  Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis , 1984 .

[15]  Timothy Coelli,et al.  An Introduction to Efficiency and Productivity Analysis , 1997 .

[16]  M. Kocher,et al.  Measuring productivity of research in economics: A cross-country study using DEA , 2006 .

[17]  E. Cohn,et al.  Multi-product Cost Functions for Universities: Economies of Scale and Scope , 2004 .

[18]  Manfred M. Fischer,et al.  Spatial knowledge spillovers and university research: Evidence from Austria , 2003 .

[19]  Jill Johnes,et al.  Apples and oranges: The aggregation problem in publications analysis , 2005, Scientometrics.

[20]  Haksever Cengiz,et al.  Measuring Value in MBA Programmes , 1998 .

[21]  Attila Varga,et al.  Geographical Spillovers and University Research: A Spatial EconometricPerspective , 2000 .

[22]  Risto Lahdelma,et al.  Data envelopment analysis: visualizing the results , 1995 .

[23]  J. Johnes.  Data Envelopment Analysis and Its Application to the Measurement of Efficiency in Higher Education. , 2006 .

[24]  Zilla Sinuany-Stern,et al.  Scaling units via the canonical correlation analysis in the DEA context , 1997, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[25]  Jill Johnes.  DEA and its Application to the Measurement of Efficiency in Higher Education , 2006 .

[26]  Jyrki Wallenius,et al.  Value efficiency analysis of academic research , 1998, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[27]  Andrés Rodríguez-Pose,et al.  The Link between Local Production Systems and Public and University Research in Italy , 2003 .

[28]  M. Farrell.  The Measurement of Productive Efficiency , 1957 .

[29]  R. Green,et al.  AN EXPERIMENT IN THE USE OF DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS FOR EVALUATING THE EFFICIENCY OF UK UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENTS OF ACCOUNTING , 1988 .

[30]  Do state appropriations influence cost efficiency in public higher education? , 2000 .

[31]  Jill Johnes,et al.  Measuring the Research Performance of UK Economics Departments: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis , 1993 .

[32]  Attila Varga,et al.  Local Geographic Spillovers between University Research and High Technology Innovations , 1997 .

[33]  John E. Beasley,et al.  Comparing university departments , 1990 .

[34]  Antreas D. Athanassopoulos,et al.  Assessing the Comparative Efficiency of Higher Education Institutions in the UK by the Means of Data Envelopment Analysis , 1997 .

[35]  A. Worthington.  An Empirical Survey of Frontier Efficiency Measurement Techniques in Education , 2001 .

[36]  J. Beasley.  Determining Teaching and Research Efficiencies , 1995 .

[37]  Erik E. Lehmann,et al.  University spillovers and new firm location , 2005 .

[38]  A. Flegg,et al.  Does Expansion Cause Congestion? The Case of the Older British Universities, 1994–2004 , 2007 .

[39]  Xue.  Universities in China ’ s National Innovation System , .