Efficiency analysis and strategic planning for colleges of engineering

Abstract

As the need for engineers increase, there is a parallel decrease in public funding of higher education. The press for increased efficiency in the system of higher education is inevitable. Although each college of engineering has its own unique mission, there may be exemplar programs that can provide guidance to them for the continuous improvement of engineering education. A Data Envelopment based model is developed using the number of faculty as the educational system input and B.S., M.S., PhD degrees, and research expenditures as measures of output for colleges of engineering in the U.S. Data was drawn from the ASEE data mining tool over a three year period (2010-2012) for 186 colleges of engineering. A non-dominated set of 24 efficient engineering colleges was identified and compare with the set of less efficient colleges. The relationship between the level of funded research and PhD production is the same for the efficient and less efficient programs. There is a marked difference between the efficient set and others in the relationship between BS and MS production and funded research. A regression surface fit to the efficient programs and demonstrates the range of these programs. This thesis is organized as follows: a brief discussion of the issue of efficiency in engineering education and some relevant studies. A summary of Data Envelopment Analysis method is presented with some relevant applications from literature. The set of relevant programs is selected and an efficient set identified. The efficient and less efficient programs are compared. Based on the results a strategic planning determined for schools. Then an analysis performed for each programs. And a further examination with more inputs and outputs with a comparison of result, and a closer look to programs with similar characteristics.