Estimation of relative efficiency in higher education. The case of the thirteen departments of the University Center of Economic and Administrative Science of the University of Guadalajara (2001)

Abstract

Based on the application of the envelope data analysis (ADE), in this study the relative efficiency scores of the 13 academic departments of the University Center for Administrative Economic Sciences (CUCEA) of the University of Guadalajara (UdeG) are estimated. The ade is a non-parametric and deterministic technique based on linear programming (PL) and microeconomic theory of production. By applying this method it is possible to build an efficiency frontier and identify those academic departments that are operating relatively inefficiently.

Subsequently, an individual analysis of each academic department is carried out to determine what are the causes of such inefficiencies, the action plans for the potential improvement are established, the reference groups for these inefficient units are determined and, finally, it is calculated the percentage of contribution of each input and product. These are useful scores to know which variables have been most decisive in measuring the performance of each decision unit (UDE).