Does Vice-Chancellor power determine UK University efficiency performance?

Figures & data

Table 1. Overall and technical efficiency scores of the whole UK education sector from 2016 to 2020.

Year	OE	TE
2016	0.80	0.87
2017	0.79	0.85
2018	0.77	0.84
2019	0.70	0.80
2020	0.79	0.87
Whole sector	0.77	0.84

Table 2. Definitions of variables.

Variables	Measures
Dependent variables
OE	Overall efficiency
TE	Technical efficiency
Inputs and outputs
Staff*	Total full-time academic staff
Students*	Total full-time equivalent students
Total expenditure*	Total expenditure of the higher education institution (£000s)
Graduates*	Total graduates
Publication***	Total publications
Total income*	Total income of the higher education institution (£000s)
Regression variables
Power	A principal component using Compensation, Tenure, Awards and Education variables
Compensation**	Natural logarithm of VC’s annual total compensation
Salary**	Natural logarithm of VC’s annual salary
Tenure**	Duration in VC office (years)
ROA*	Return on Asset (percent)
Leverage*	Total Liabilities/Total Assets
TA*	Total Assets (£000s)
VC dummy variables equal 1 if the condition is met, and 0 otherwise
Origin**	Asian or ethnic minority
Education**	Degree from the University of Cambridge or Oxford
Awards**	Recipient of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire or Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
BritCitz**	British citizen
Gender**	Male
INTER**	Internally appointed
KNI**	Knighted
VCOHE**	VC in another HEI previously
University dummy variables equal 1 if the condition is met, and 0 otherwise
Cathedral**	Cathedrals group
Million**	Million Plus group
Russell**	Russell group
Alliance**	Alliance group
OtherAffiliate**	Has no or more than 1 group
England	England
Scotland	Scotland
Wales	Wales
NI	Northern Ireland

Data sources: *HESA; **University websites, public domains, and FOI requests; ***Scopus.

Table 3. Descriptive statistics.

	Mean	Median	Maximum	Minimum	Standard Deviation	N
Staff	1578	1180	7965	15	1416	630
Students	17,570	16,808	129,420	810	13,009	630
Total expenditure	278,618	199,169	2,582,239	14,220	311,438	630
Graduates	5669	5560	19,080	15	3369	630
Publication	2015	891	18,987	3	3099	630
Total income	284,176	201,488	2,536,311	15,913	319,493	630
Compensation	12.62	12.60	13.60	11.74	0.24	630
Salary	12.44	12.45	13.00	11.55	0.21	630
Tenure	5.27	4.00	27.00	0.00	4.39	630
ROA	−0.39	0.01	5.48	−230.66	9.21	630
Leverage	0.35	0.35	0.83	0.07	0.12	630
TA	647,556.1	392,712.50	829,8546.0	30,628.0	953,925.3	630
Award	0.34	0.00	1.00	0.00	0.47	630
Education	0.24	0.00	1.00	0.00	0.43	630
Origin	0.05	0.00	1.00	0.00	0.22	630
BritCitz	0.88	1.00	1.00	0.00	0.32	630
Gender	0.72	1.00	1.00	0.00	0.45	630
INTER	0.17	0.00	1.00	0.00	0.38	630
KNI	0.17	0.00	1.00	0.00	0.38	630
VCOHE	0.17	0.00	1.00	0.00	0.38	630
Cathedral	0.08	0.00	1.00	0.00	0.27	630
Million	0.13	0.00	1.00	0.00	0.34	630
Russell	0.19	0.00	1.00	0.00	0.39	630
OtherAffiliate	0.48	0.00	1.00	0.00	0.50	630
Alliance	0.11	0.00	1.00	0.00	0.31	630
England	0.81	1.00	1.00	0.00	0.39	630
Scotland	0.12	0.00	1.00	0.00	0.32	630
Wales	0.06	0.00	1.00	0.00	0.23	630
NI	0.02	0.00	1.00	0.00	0.13	630

Table 4. Pearson correlations.

		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1	OE	1.000
2	TE	0.806	1.000
3	Leverage	0.066	−0.037	1.000
4	Salary	0.300	0.314	−0.051	1.000
5	Compensation	0.279	0.283	−0.098	0.852	1.000
6	Power	0.099	0.095	−0.139	0.264	0.260	1.000
7	ROA	0.057	0.028	0.037	−0.016	−0.030	0.037	1.000
8	TA	0.250	0.321	−0.132	0.415	0.381	−0.099	−0.044	1.000
9	Tenure	0.037	0.023	−0.117	0.206	0.131	0.820	0.040	−0.108	1.000

Table 5. The effect of Power on efficiency and other variables (including VC Compensation).

Model	Main Effect		Main Effect		Main Effect		Interaction Effect
	1		2		3		4
	OE	TE	OE	TE	OE	TE	OE	TE
Power	0.0365***	0.0311*	–	–	–	–	0.1825**	0.1320**
Panel A: Power Constituents
Compensation	–	–	0.2623***	0.3301***	0.1626*	0.1175***	–	–
Tenure	–	–	−0.0056***	−0.0041***	−0.01004**	−0.0323*	–	–
Education	–	–	−0.0695***	NS	−0.0463***	NS	–	–
Awards	–	–	0.1006***	0.0390*	0.0913***	NS	–	–
Tenure^2	–	–	–	–	0.0004***	0.0018*	–	–
Panel B: Interaction Variables
Origin × Power			–	–	–	–	−0.0297***	−0.0360***
Gender × Power			–	–	–	–	−0.1818***	−0.1651***
Controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
No. of observations	630	630	630	630	630	630	630	630
J-statistic (p-value)	.7921	.7282	.9069	.3162	.9583	.3888	.4821	.4907

Note: All models except Model 4 were controlled for ROA, Leverage, TA, Russell, Million, Cathedral and OtherAffiliate. For Model 4, Gender and Origin were the controls. Inference: * p < .10, ** p < .05, *** p < .01.

Figure 1. Interaction effect Origin (OE and TE).

Figure 2. Interaction effect with Gender (OE and TE).

Table

Model	Main Effect		Main Effect
	1		2
	OE	TE	OE	TE
Power	0.0328***	0.0287**	–	–
Salary	–	–	0.2660***	0.1986***
Tenure	–	–	−0.0061***	−0.0033***
Education	–	–	−0.0745***	−0.0424***
Awards	–	–	0.1277***	0.0842*
Controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
No. of observations	630	630	630	630
J-statistic (p-value)	.6940	.6774	.8908	.4371

Notes: All models controlled for ROA, Leverage, TA, Russell, Million, Cathedral and OtherAffiliate. Inference: * p < .10, ** p < .05, *** p < .01.

Table

Model	Main Effect		Main Effect
	1		2
	OE	TE	OE	TE
Power	0.0256***	0.0169*	–	–
Compensation	–	–	0.1206***	0.2507***
Tenure	–	–	−0.0037***	−0.0034***
Education	–	–	−0.0388***	NS
Awards	–	–	0.0838***	NS
Controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
No. of observations	630	630	630	630
J-statistic (p-value)	.7834	.6349	.8361	.3185

Notes: All models controlled for ROA, Leverage, TA, Russell, Million, Cathedral and OtherAffiliate. Inference: * p < .10, ** p < .05, *** p < .01.

Table

Model	Main Effect		Main Effect
	1		2
	OE	TE	OE	TE
Power	0.0236***	0.0162**	–	–
Salary	–	–	0.1656***	0.1827***
Tenure	–	–	−0.0045***	−0.0032***
Education	–	–	−0.0443***	−0.0137***
Awards	–	–	0.0971***	0.0540*
Controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
No. of observations	630	630	630	630
J-statistic (p-value)	.7729	.7060	.9103	.4371

Notes: All models controlled for ROA, Leverage, TA, Russell, Million, Cathedral and OtherAffiliate. Inference: * p < .10, ** p < .05, *** p < .01.