Are South African public universities economically efficient? Reflection amidst higher education crisis

Marire, Juniours

doi:10.20853/31-3-1037

Cited by 9 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…This criterion along with previous literature (e.g. Abbott and Doucouliagos 2003;Johnes 2014;Marire 2017) and economic theory on efficiency analysis were used for selection of performance indicators in the present study.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficiency assessment of public universities in South Africa, 2009-2013: Panel data evidence

Myeki

Temoso

2019

SAJHE

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With continuous growth of students' enrolments in the public universities and limited funding, assessing the efficiency of universities is vital for effective allocation and utilisation of educational resources. Are higher education institutions in South Africa making the most efficient use of resources made available to them? This study attempts to provide an answer to this question. We apply a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method to estimate technical efficiency (TE) of 22 public universities in South Africa for the period 2009 to 2013. A university is said to be efficient if it is producing maximum output (number of graduates and publications) from a minimum quantity of inputs (staff numbers, students' enrolments, and expenditure). The results indicate that over the study period the average TE of universities declined from 0.83 to 0.78. Research-intensive universities were more efficient than professional-oriented universities. These results can help key decision-makers such as the Commission on Higher Education and universities management in identifying possibilities for improving institutional performance by identifying their strengths and weaknesses and benchmarking with their peers.

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Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficiency assessment of public universities in South Africa, 2009-2013: Panel data evidence

Myeki

Temoso

2019

SAJHE

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“…Apart from Taylor and Harris (2004) and Myeki and Temoso (2019), other studies which proxy for outputs as number of graduates and published papers for evaluating efficiency of universities include Andersson et al (2017), Marire (2017), Duan andDeng (2016), Erkoç (2016), Bangi and Sahay (2014), Wolszczak-Derlacz (2014), Al-Bagoury (2013) and Agasisti and Johnes (2010).…”

Section: Application Of Deamentioning

confidence: 99%

A non-parametric assessment of efficiency of South African public universities

Nkohla

Munacinga

Marwa

et al. 2021

SAJHE

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This article seeks to assess the efficiency of 23 South African public universities using a Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) model for the period 2009-2016. A recent study on this subject matter found a decline in the average TE score of the South African public universities from 83 per cent in 2009 to 78 per cent in 2013. However, the study did not account for non-academic staff among other input variables that are assumed to potentially influence performance outcomes of the universities. We believed that a biased conclusion on the subject matter is likely if academic staff are assumed to dominate efficiency of public universities in South Africa, while the effort of nonacademic staff is not considered. In this respect, our model incorporates both academic and nonacademic staff as input variables among others. Our findings show that over the study period 2009-2016 the average Technical Efficiency (TE) of the South African public universities increased from 91 per cent to 95 per cent. For this result in particular, we deduce that in assessing efficiency of South African public universities, academic and non-academic staff can be deemed as mutually inclusive variables and therefore, neglecting either of the two can lead to biased estimated average TE scores. In addition to this empirical contribution, we also estimate scale and pure efficiency. Our findings show that on average South African public universities are relatively Nkohla, Munacinga, Marwa, Ncwadi A non-parametric assessment of efficiency of South African public universities 159 better off in scale efficiency (at 97%) as compared to pure technical efficiency (at 96%). The efficiency levels provided in this study can be used as performance benchmarks for identifying potential improvements required to reach a satisfactory level of efficiency.

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“…The study of economic efficiency of public institutions of higher learning has a long tradition in social thought. As early as the 1970s scholars argued that the education sector was ripe for efficiency analysis because of "size and rising costs" (Levin, Jamison, & Radner, 1976: 149) and gradually falling government financial support (Bok, 2003;Kao & Hung, 2008;Marire, 2017;Mitchell, Leachman, & Masterson, 2017;Moreno & Tadepalli, 2002;Rayeni, Vardanyan & Saljooghi, 2010). Globally, it is a stylized fact that the cost of higher education has been rising much faster than the general price level (Archibald & Feldman, 2008;Baum, 2016;Calitz & Fourie, 2016;Dumestre, 2016) and the advent of massification of higher education has resulted in bloated higher education institutions (Teixeira, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The level of analysis has been mostly pitched at the inter-university comparison level although some studies have attempted to carry out intra-university comparisons (Arcelus & Coleman, 1997;Kao & Hung, 2008;Moreno & Tadepalli, 2002;Rayeni et al, 2010). Coming down to South Africa, there is just about two papers so far, to our knowledge that have looked at efficiency of public universities, namely Taylor and Harris (2002) and Marire (2017). The shortcoming of these studies is that they are silent about changes in total factor productivity over time and they are pitched at an inter-university comparison level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Changes in Total Factor Productivity for Academic Departments of Historically Privileged Small University in South Africa

2020

EJBM

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In an environment of rising levels of student debt and falling government financial support to universities, the problem of lack of financial sustainability is becoming endemic, especially among small universities. This calls for universities to identify new sources of income growth. Using a case study of a small historically privileged South African university, we examined the change in total factor productivity for the period 2004-2015. We adopted an intra-institutional departmental efficiency comparison using the Malmquist Total Factor Productivity Index under an output-oriented data envelopment analytic framework and assuming variable returns to scale. The index was decomposed into technical efficiency change, technical change, pure efficiency change, and scale efficiency change. We found that total factor productivity growth was driven by technical progress, scale efficiency improvements and to some extent technical efficiency improvements. Departments in the Faculty of Science mostly seem to have experienced greatest levels of technical change although they lagged the Department of Accounting. Because of the dominance of technical change in driving total factor productivity growth, an important source of income growth, our findings imply that universities should design institutional systems of innovation that can engender financial sustainability through increased innovation and total factor productivity growth.

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Are South African public universities economically efficient? Reflection amidst higher education crisis

Cited by 9 publications

References 11 publications

Efficiency assessment of public universities in South Africa, 2009-2013: Panel data evidence

Efficiency assessment of public universities in South Africa, 2009-2013: Panel data evidence

A non-parametric assessment of efficiency of South African public universities

Analysis of Changes in Total Factor Productivity for Academic Departments of Historically Privileged Small University in South Africa

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