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ABSTRACT
This study investigates the technical efficiency and productivity of Nordic higher education institutions (HEIs). One problem in previous research is the adjustment of efficiency scores for input quality. A problem avoided by using upper-secondary schooling grades. A second problem relates to heterogeneity concerning subjects and institutions among HEIs. Using a national resource allocation system, student achievements (ECTS-credits) are weighted according to subject-mix at the HEI level. For research production, a bibliometric publication measure is used, and highly cited publications are included to consider quality. A third problem when using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is the lack of statistical inference. Therefore, bootstrapping is used to resolve this problem. The results, using data from 68 Nordic HEIs between 2011 and 2016, indicate an average inefficiency of 10.1% and a yearly productivity increase of around 0.4%. A second-stage correlation analysis shows that the inefficiency scores are positively correlated with staff turnover.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for helpful comments by Professor Kristof De Witte and three referees. We are also most grateful to Zuzanna Thiel, Tanja Kirjavainen, Eli Christiansen and Magnús Lyngdal Magnússon for all the help with data collection.
Notes
1. Based on the definition used by the ETER database (www.eter-project.com), an HEI should be a distinct organization and a nationally recognized university, most of whose activities are at the undergraduate and/or graduate level. Research activities are not a requirement for inclusion.
2. The following mergers took place during the period studied: In 2012, the University of Oslo and Akershus was created by merging the University of Akershus and the University of Oslo. In 2016, the University of Sørøst was created through a merger of the University of Telemark and the University of Vestfold and Buskerud, which, in turn, had been created in 2014 through the merger of the University of Vestfold and the University of Buskerud. In 2018, the University of Sørøst changed its name to Sørøst. In 2016, Norway’s University of Science and Technology was created through the merger of the University of Gjørvik, the University of Sør-Trøndelag, and the University of Ålesund. In 2014, the Norwegian Environmental and Bioscientific University was created through a merger of the University for Environment and life Sciences and the Norwegian Veterinary College. In 2014, the University of Finnmark became a part of Tromsø. The same happened with the University of Harstad and the University of Narvik in 2016. In 2016, the North University was created through a merger of the University of Nordland, the University of Nord-Trøndelag, and the University of Nesna. The University of Gotland became a part of Uppsala University in 2013. Malmö University was awarded university status on January 1, 2018 and is now called Malmö University.
3. The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is a tool used by the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) for making studies and courses more transparent. For more information, see European Commission (Citation2015).
4. Danish price tags have been used to adjust for cost differences since the Danish system is most consistent with the division of fields of education used in the ETER database. In a somewhat simplified manner, we are scaling up the ECTS output variable for HEIs that have increased cost per student on the input side. The idea is to compensate these HEIs since they need more (or more expensive) resources to produce the same output. For example, the average cost of education for a medical student is higher than that of an economist.
5. Licentiate degrees are not included in this measure. In the Nordic countries, there is the possibility of taking a licentiate degree in Sweden and Finland, but not in Denmark, Norway, Iceland, or the Faroe Islands. It is therefore difficult to create a comparable variable between countries if licentiate degrees are included. However, in separate analyses for Swedish HEIs only, licentiate degrees have been included and are then considered as half-PhD degrees.
6. The number of publications is fractionalized. Fractionalizing means that publications are divided into smaller parts based on the author addresses or names provided in the publication. Fractionalizing prevents articles with authors from multiple organizations from being counted several times. It also prevents the sum of items from being greater than the actual number of items in the database. The number of publications is based on the document types Article and Review. For more details on the bibliometric method used, see Nordforsk (Citation2017).
7. The number of citations was calculated over three years, which correlates to the number of citations made to a publication within two years after it was published. Citations that arise from self-citation were not counted.
8. The calculations of long-term technical efficiency have been carried out with the R-package Benchmarking (see Bogetoft & Otto, Citation2011). Calculations were made under the assumption of constant returns to scale (CRS).
9. Staff turnover =.
10. Since all three Icelandic HEIs were found to be super-efficient (and were therefore excluded from the efficiency analysis), the productivity of these institutions cannot be calculated. HEIs that were found to be super-efficient in some, but not all, of the observed years were included in the analysis but excluded from the model for the years when they were super-efficient. Therefore, the productivity of the University of the Faroe Islands was calculated only for the last two years of the studied time series (−8.6% between 2015–2016).
11. The productivity deduction means that HEIs were not fully compensated for the price and wage increases in society.