Abstract:

One of the most important goals of higher education is to provide students with equal opportunities for successful education. In order to improve students' academic performance and meet their individual needs, universities are seeking to improve the quality of student learning environment and academic achievements. It is necessary to monitor efficiency of higher education institution with the main goal to achieve full efficiency. The aim of this study was to measure efficiency of the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies (LLU) full-time bachelor study level programs from 2006 to 2018 using different statistical methods to determine has university possibilities to influence the input or output indicators. Data analysis was performed with ratio indicator method and DEA models. In our study, as input indicators were used the university incomes, enrolled students, the number of academic staff, but as output indicators - number of graduated students and costs. Different models with one or multiple input and one or multiple output parameters were tested and efficiency of LLU in different time periods was compared according to these models. The University has higher possibilities to influence the input, than output indicators; therefore the input orientated models are preferable for higher education efficiency evaluation.

Keywords:

Data envelopment analysis, efficiency, higher education, ratio indicator method.