Performance of Vietnamese Higher Education Institutions: Evidence Using Data Envelopment Analysis

Abstract

<p>The main objective of this thesis is to evaluate the performance of Vietnamese higher education institutions (HEIs), namely, universities and colleges. In doing so, nonparametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) approaches are used to: (i) estimate the operational efficiencies of HEIs; (ii) examine the impacts of contextual variables on input usages and compute the environmentallyadjusted efficiencies of HEIs; (iii) investigate and identify sources of input mix inefficiencies in HEIs; (iv) evaluate the technological heterogeneity and efficiencies of universities and colleges using metafrontier technology; and (v) analyse the contribution of the financial efficiencies to the academic efficiencies and overall efficiencies of public universities and colleges under a network structure.</p><p> Balanced panel data for 112 universities and 141 colleges for the years 2011-2013 were collected from the Viet Nam Ministry of Education and Training (MOET). The number of HEIs in the sample involved accounts for 60 per cent of the total number of HEIs in Viet Nam. All of these institutions have complied with the regulations to submit their annual reports to MOET during the period considered in the analysis.</p><p> The thesis is organised in a paper-based format and presented in three main parts. Part I provides the contextual background of the study, characteristics and challenges of the Vietnamese higher education sector and the role of the productive efficiency analysis in higher education. Part II presents the empirical analyses of the performance of Vietnamese HEIs with respect to specific objectives and methods. Part III presents an integrating discussion of core findings, managerial implications, directions for future research, and contributions of the thesis.</p><p> Using the standard and bootstrapped DEA models, the results reveal that the efficiencies of universities and colleges in both models are less than the full efficiency of one. The second-stage regression models indicate that some contextual variables are influential in the efficiencies of HEIs. After the process of adjusting the impacts of determinants on input usages, the average efficiencies of universities and colleges significantly increase but are still less than the frontier full efficiency. The Färe-Primont productivity index is calculated and decomposed into measures of technology, technical efficiency, scale efficiency and mix efficiency for an input orientation to gain a better understanding of the sources and levels of the inefficiencies. Results indicate that there is significant evidence of input mix inefficiency and these are substantially affected by contextual variables. Using the metafrontier framework, the metafrontier efficiencies of universities and colleges are measured relative to their individual teaching technologies. The results indicate that universities are significantly more efficient than colleges in a common context. The metatechnology gaps between their individual frontiers and the metafrontier are mainly driven by policy, environmental, and institutional constraints. Finally, the dynamic network DEA approach is used to assess the financial and academic efficiencies of public HEIs in the organisational structure. The results indicate that the average estimated efficiencies of financial and academic divisions are less than the fully technical efficiency, for both universities and colleges. The correlation between the financial and academic efficiencies is weak. The overall efficiencies of public universities are more strongly related to academic efficiencies than to financial efficiencies. By contrast, the financial efficiencies contribute more to the overall efficiencies of public colleges.</p><p> Some important implications are found in this thesis. First, HEIs in Viet Nam are inefficient in their operations in the years involved. The average of the mean efficiencies of universities and colleges obtained from different models are 0.806 and 0.768, respectively. This implies that there is much room for them to improve their performance. Among the possible solutions, more flexibility in the governance system may be helpful for HEIs to improve their mix efficiencies in using input mix to diversify the production outputs. Second, the proportion of postgraduate staff contributes significantly to the efficiencies of universities; thus, the human resource strategy of the government concerning higher degrees should keep being enhanced. Third, universities and colleges are operating comparatively well with respect to their own teaching technology under a general scenario. This suggests that it may not be necessary to upgrade colleges to university status on the basis of efficiency issues. Finally, although the financial efficiencies occupy a crucial role in the operations of public HEIs, their contribution to the academic operations is not substantial.</p><p> This research has made the following significant contributions: (i) introducing a new research context to the efficiency literature by constructing a profile of the performance of Vietnamese HEIs; (ii) providing empirical results by applying advanced DEA methods with extensions that are applicable and can be used to compare the findings of other studies in the higher education sector; and (iii) offering managerial suggestions in the reform process of higher education in Viet Nam, where the role of the government dominates in the educational market and the complicated governance system affects the flexibility of the operations of HEIs.</p>