Efficiency of 25 National Universities: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis to Higher Education

Abstract

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to measure the relative efficiency of 25 national universities. The results indicate how DEA may be used to measure relative efficiency of these higher education institutions from commonly available "performance indicators." In addition to conventional comparative-static sensitivity analysis of inefficient universities, the effects of simultaneous perturbations to all components are examined. The sensitivity of efficient universities to perturbations which would cause the universities to become relatively inefficient is also analyzed. This methodology makes full use of the newest developments in the DEA field.