Actual Autonomy, Efficiency and Performance of Universities: Insights from the Russian Case

ABSTRACT

This paper studies the relationship between university institutional autonomy (both formal and informal) and their performance and efficiency using multi-stage empirical methodology. First, we measure an “autonomy-in-use” index, and then we employ Data Envelopment Analysis in order to evaluate institutional efficiency. Lastly, we use a panel fixed effect regression to provide robust evidence for the relationship between institutional autonomy, performance and efficiency. We find that formal status of autonomy does not predict higher publication activity or efficiency. However, the findings also reveal that informal autonomy is positively associated with efficiency scores, and advanced practices in staff management can contribute to increases in publication activity and overall institutional efficiency.

KEYWORDS:

• Autonomy
• higher education management
• composite indicator
• efficiency analysis

Acknowledgments

We are very thankful for fruitful discussion and valuable comments on the previous version of this paper at the following conferences and workshops: XVI European Workshop on Efficiency and Productivity Analysis – EWEPA (London, 2019), 7^th International Workshop on Efficiency in Education, Health and Other Public Services (Barcelona, 2019), XX April International Academic Conference (Moscow, 2019). All eventual errors are our own responsibility. This article is an output of a research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. We use an alternative method of constructing the composite indicator, the mazziotta-pareto index (Mazziotta & Pareto, 2013). When calculating the final index, we apply the minimal weight restrictions (20%) to provide more robustness. The variables used at the stage of sub-index calculation and the sub-indices used for the final index evaluation are normalized (see Agasisti & Shibanova, 2020).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University).