Measuring efficiency of Vietnamese public colleges : an application of the DEA-based dynamic network approach

In Vietnam, public colleges play a crucial role in shaping the socioeconomic and educational development strategies and providing a skilled labor force needed for the country's market-oriented economy. Using balanced panel data for 2011–2013, we use the integrated data envelopment analysis based dynamic network model to examine dynamic changes in efficiencies of public colleges in the education sector. This model allows simultaneously estimating efficiencies of financial and academic operations and the overall dynamic changes of colleges in a network structure. Our findings indicate that the overall efficiencies of colleges are, on average, 0.741 while the average efficiencies of the financial and academic operations are 0.722 and 0.760, respectively. Furthermore, the in-city colleges are more efficient than others, 0.776 and 0.728, respectively.