Measuring the Efficiency of Public Universities: Using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to Examine Public Universities in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that allot substantial amount of government resources for education. Thus, it is important to measure how these resources are used to generate favorable academic outcomes for its nationals. In this study, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to measure the relative efficiency of 25 public universities in Saudi Arabia. Results show that although most public universities in the country are efficient, some fall behind in performance due to poor utilization of available resources. Implications of this are discussed and recommendations are provided.