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

Abstract

As student numbers in higher education in the UK have expanded during recent years, it has become increasingly important to understand its cost structure. This study applies Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to higher education institutions in England to assess their cost structure, efficiency and productivity. The paper complements an earlier study that used parametric methods to analyse the same panel data. Interestingly, DEA provides estimates of subject-specific unit costs that are in the same ballpark as those provided by the parametric methods. The paper then extends the previous analysis and finds that further student number increases of the order of 20–27% are feasible through exploiting operating and scale efficiency gains and also adjusting student mix. Finally the paper uses a Malmquist index approach to assess productivity change in the UK higher education. The results reveal that for a majority of institutions productivity has actually decreased during the study period.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jors.2010.68
Divisions: College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School > Operations & Information Management
College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School
Additional Information: The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/jors.2010.68
Uncontrolled Keywords: higher education,data envelopment analysis,performance measurement,productivity,cost function,Management Science and Operations Research,Management Information Systems,Marketing,Strategy and Management
Publication ISSN: 1476-9360
Last Modified: 06 Nov 2024 08:04
Date Deposited: 23 Sep 2013 10:03
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
http://www.palg ... ors201068a.html (Publisher URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2011-07
Published Online Date: 2010-07-21
Authors: Thanassoulis, E. (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-3769-5374)
Kortelainen, M.
Johnes, G.
Johnes, J.

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