Performance assessment in higher education in Britain

All public sector organisations in the UK have witnessed changes in funding arrangements during the 1980s as part of the Government's drive to make them more accountable to the tax-payer. The development of performance indicators is seen as an essential step to ensure that such organisations provide value for money. This paper examines the possibility of constructing measures of the performance of UK universities. A methodology is developed in the framework of production theory and uses multiple regression techniques to estimate the relationship between the outputs and inputs of universities. Around 80% of the inter-university variation in four output measures can be explained by corresponding variations in several input measures. This highlights the need to take into account the inputs available to a university when comparing its output performance with that achieved by other institutions. The problems of interpreting an array of performance indicators are also clearly demonstrated.     

Human capital externality and chaotic equilibrium dynamics

This study develops a two-period overlapping generations model in which adults undertake educational investment decisions on behalf of young agents. In addition to educational investment, we argue that the accumulation of human capital is also dependent upon the externality from average human capital within the economy. In a departure from the previous literature in this area, we assume that there is a reduction in the overall productivity of human capital accumulation brought about by human capital externality, and show that complicated dynamics will emerge under this circumstance. In addition to displaying the chaotic dynamics in the sense of Li and Yorke, we also verify the existence of Devaney's chaos and Smale's chaos.     

Predicting mathematical aptitude for higher education

This present study seeks to predict mathematical aptitude for higher education by examining the relationship between mathematics results from the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) general proficiency examination and the results from the General Certificate of Education (GCE) advanced level examination. This present study arose from a more extensive study that used a random sample of 177 high school students in the age cohort 17?19+ from a 7-year state-run, co-educational institution with a broad-based curriculum and a wide catchment area of student intake in The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies. Semi-structured interviews and student academic records from the school comprised the survey instruments used for the study. Student grades were quantified using numerical scales. Findings suggest that the comprehension profile (Profile 2) of the CXC general proficiency level mathematics serves as a good predictor of mathematical aptitude for GCE advanced level mathematics. Implications for predicting mathematical aptitude for higher education and related issues are discussed.     

A new method for strategic decision-making in higher education

Central European Journal of Operations Research - Using the appropriate methodology for strategic decision-making in higher education is crucial to make effective decisions. In this paper, the...     

Practices in timetabling in higher education institutions: a systematic review

Annals of Operations Research - The study of differences between timetabling research presented in conferences like PATAT or published in Annals of OR and commercial timetabling software used in...     

The role of prior mathematical experience in predicting mathematics performance in higher education

Evidence of deficiencies in basic mathematical skills of beginning undergraduates has been documented worldwide. Many different theories have been set out as to why these declines in mathematical competency levels have occurred over time. One such theory is the widening access to higher education which has resulted in a less mathematically prepared profile of beginning undergraduates than ever before. In response to this situation, the present study details the examination of a range of methods through which a student's mathematical performance in higher education could be predicted at the beginning of their third-level studies. Several statistical prediction methods were examined and the most effective method in predicting students’ mathematical performance was discriminant analysis. The discriminant analysis correctly classified 71.3% of students in terms of mathematics performance. An ability to carry out such a prediction in turn allows for appropriate mathematics remediation to be offered to students predicted to fail third-level mathematics. The results of the prediction of mathematical performance, which was carried out using a database consisting of over 1000 beginning undergraduates over a 3-year period, are detailed in this article along with the implications of such findings to educational policy and practice.     

Costs and efficiency of higher education institutions in England: a DEA analysis

As student numbers in higher education in the UK have expanded during recent years, it has become increasingly important to understand its cost structure. This study applies Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to higher education institutions in England to assess their cost structure, efficiency and productivity. The paper complements an earlier study that used parametric methods to analyse the same panel data. Interestingly, DEA provides estimates of subject-specific unit costs that are in the same ballpark as those provided by the parametric methods. The paper then extends the previous analysis and finds that further student number increases of the order of 20–27% are feasible through exploiting operating and scale efficiency gains and also adjusting student mix. Finally the paper uses a Malmquist index approach to assess productivity change in the UK higher education. The results reveal that for a majority of institutions productivity has actually decreased during the study period.     

Efficiency analysis in multi-period systems: an application to performance evaluation in Czech higher education

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a non-parametric method for efficiency and performance analysis of decision making units. The paper deals with production systems where decision making units are described by their inputs and outputs in several consecutive periods. The paper presents (Park and Park in Eur J Oper Res 193(2):567–580, 2009) multi-period DEA model that is oriented on the “best” period of the unit under evaluation only. This aim of this paper is to overcome the disadvantage of this model and formulate new models of this class that allow evaluation the efficiency of decision making units within the whole production chain. The presented efficiency and super-efficiency multi-period DEA models are illustrated on a case study. The study consists in analysis of research and teaching performance of 19 Czech economic faculties in four years period from 2009 until 2012. The model considers two inputs (number of academic employees and labour costs) and two outputs for teaching efficiency (number of students and number of graduated). Research efficiency is expressed using the number of publications in various important categories and the number of so called RIV points that describe the quality of publications.     

我国普通高等教育发展水平的全局主成分分析

本文根据 1995年、1997年和 1999年共同构成的关于我国普通高等教育发展水平的时序立体数据表 ,通过全局主成分分析得到公共主成分子空间L(F1,F2 ,… ,Fm) ,并在该子空间对我国高等教育发展背景和现状进行统计分析 ,给出了排名和变化趋势。     

A study of the difficulties experienced with mathematics by engineering students in higher education

This paper describes a study undertaken to investigate the problem of the lack of mathematical expertise demonstrated by polytechnic engineering students. The study is based on a multiple‐choice diagnostic mathematics test, designed for the purpose, which was taken by incoming engineering students over a period of five years. The test aims to identify particular areas of difficulty. These difficulties are analysed and suggestions are made regarding their cause and alleviation. It has been confirmed that there is cause for concern at the overall mathematical ability of the students and it has been possible to identify certain areas of mathematics which appear to be difficult to a large proportion of students. It has also been possible to identify some of the common errors made by students in certain topic areas. Some suggestions have been made regarding the implications for teaching.     

Decision-making on prioritization of projects in higher education institutions using the analytic network process approach

The prioritization of projects in higher education institutions is a complex decision-making problem. In this paper we deal with two scenarios within Higher Education Institutions. The first scenario is a need to prepare an action plan for activities that will result in the implementation of a portfolio of projects at the institutional level. The second scenario is making a decision on whether to start a new project application, and if so, which project to choose in a situation where project teams have several project ideas and limited resources. The purpose of the paper is to show how to include corporate strategy in the decision-making process and use the Analytic Network Process as a multiple criteria decision-making methodology which can be used in solving project selection problems.     

Designing a flexible approach for higher professional education by means of simulation modelling

Operational flexibility is a prerequisite for innovations in higher education. Educational programmes have an operational structure which restricts their flexibility. Design principles from the fields of operations management and instructional design were applied for the design of a flexible approach in educational programmes. In a case study, the curriculum and operational data from an institute for higher professional education in the Netherlands were used to develop a discrete-event simulation model, in order to demonstrate effects of operational changes on the flexibility of their educational programmes. Programme coordinators of the institute validated the model and considered it as a feasible solution for organizing their educational programmes, and as a contribution to educational innovation.     

Over-investment in marriage-specific capital

We consider the decisions of a married couple in a risky environment. The distribution of spouses’ bargaining power may change as a result of new outside opportunities that become available to them, so that individual consumption may fluctuate over time. This is what we call “bargaining risk”. To reduce this risk, spouses may decide to over-invest in marriage-specific capital (which, by definition, is completely lost in the case of divorce) and thereby limit the attractiveness of spouses’ outside opportunities. This strategy is shown to be optimal. More surprisingly, over-investment in marriage-specific capital remains an optimal strategy when spouses are confronted with a (small) risk of divorce. This is in contrast to the usual intuition.     

Inverse probability weighted estimation of local average treatment effects: A higher order MSE expansion

We consider a new inverse probability weighted estimator for the local average treatment effect parameter where the instrument propensity score is estimated by local polynomial regression. We derive its asymptotics and provide a higher order expansion of its asymptotic MSE.     

Widening participation in higher education: student quantitative skills and independent learning as impediments to progression

The UK government's widening participation strategy, and the concomitant development of a mass higher education system, has imposed a variety of pressures on higher education institutions. Not least of these is the changing nature of the student population, and the assumptions that can be made about its skills and knowledge base. It should not be surprising that this rapid expansion of the higher education system has resulted in declining student progression and retention rates. This paper takes a case study approach and attempts to identify the range of factors that might explain the variability of student performance on a first year undergraduate introductory statistics module. The paper concludes that there are no simple predictors of success or failure. However, there is evidence to suggest that any innovations in delivery need to take account of individual student development and that the presumption that students can rapidly become independent learners upon initial entry to higher education is an unrealistic one.     

Non-parametric estimation of the cost of adequacy in education: the case of Dutch schools

Adequacy is defined in education as a minimum set of outcome standards. Schools that are unable to achieve these goals are not providing an adequate education. This failure could arise from insufficient spending on productive resources and/or inefficient use of existing resources. The purpose of this paper is to build on previous research to provide estimates of the cost of adequacy. We introduce a non-parametric measure of the cost of adequacy that controls for the socio-economic environment and resource prices. For illustrative purposes, we apply this model to analyse Dutch schools. Our results show that the costs of achieving the minimum standard of performance are very different for schools with different levels of environmental harshness. Furthermore, the additional costs of achieving a higher standard are much higher for schools with a harsh environment than for schools with a favourable environment.