Efficiency evaluation of higher education sector in Europe - window dea based approach

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate relative efficiency of tertiary education in the period between 2013 and 2020. Since resources used for higher education are scarce and education is mostly publicly funded, it is important to use these resources as efficiently as possible. In this paper, DEA Window Analysis was used, which allows a dynamic evaluation and comparison of efficiency results over time. The empirical analysis is carried out on higher education systems of 30 European countries through eight-year long period. Two inputs (academic staff and general government expenditure on higher education) and four outputs (graduates, mobile students from abroad, citable documents and citations) were chosen as variables in an output-oriented 3-year window DEA model for the assessment of technical efficiency (TE) as well as pure technical (PTE) and scale efficiency (SE) as its components. The results show that efficiency varies across countries and over time. Overall efficiency peaked in 2016 and declines steadily thereafter. When analysing the sources of inefficiency, PTE as a measure of management performance is overall higher than SE as a measure of optimal production size until 2017, except for 2015 when it is slightly lower than SE. We can conclude that the source of inefficiency until 2017 is generally the nonoptimal production size. From 2018, the situation changes and management performance becomes the main source of inefficiency. The results of this study may help policy makers in European countries in their efforts to increase the efficiency of higher education.