Measuring the efficiency of higher education: case of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

This paper is devoted to measuring the efficiency of the higher education of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The data envelopment analysis method was applied, considering the number of enrolled students, budget financing, co-financing, self-financing as inputs, and the number of graduated students according to the field of education as the output. Measuring the relative efficiency of main fields of the higher education system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the authors found that the agriculture is the most efficient field of higher education in this country. However, the engineering, manufacturing technologies and construction field have the lowest efficiency score due to the high consumption of budget expenditures, but the lowest education results. The hypothesis of the growing efficiency of the higher education system of Bosnia and Herzegovina was not confirmed. The downward trend in the total number of publications indicates a twofold deterioration in the scientific efficiency of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the six-year period. Comparison with neighboring countries showed relatively low scientific efficiency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The conclusion is that currently the higher education system in Bosnia and Herzegovina is relatively inefficient and its efficiency falls down.