The Study Of Economic Scale Of Universities In Gansu Province

During the period of "The 11th five-year plan", the reform and development of higher education in Gansu province have realized a historical breakthrough, so the higher education has entered into the stage of popularization:the running scale of universities has expanded rapidly, the managerial condition has been gradually improved, and the school benefit has been increased. The total investment of higher education has been increased, sponsored by the government in Gansu province, and the ability to raise funds through various channels has enhanced obviously.Under the precondition of studying enterprise scale economy theory, it is applied into the higher education system. In Gansu province, the core of the study on economic scale of universities is to judge whether the scale of universities makes its benefit in the condition of scale economy or not, namely, the IRS using state, from the existing resources of universities and in the certain conditions of the input resources. If not, how to adjust the running scale, the direction and the strength of the adjustment, will provide theoretical guidance for the scientific development of the higher education in Gansu province.Based on the nature of the more input and output of universities, a suitable method to study the economic benefits of universities is chosen:the data envelopment analysis (DEA).The five representative universities are selected as the decision-making units of the model (DMU1～DMU5), and two models C2R and C2GS2 in DEA are applied to get the optimal solutions of the models. The optimal solution (θ*) of the model C2R represents the comprehensive efficiency from the scale and the technical effectiveness; the optimal solution (θ*') of the model C2GS2 only represents the pure technical effectiveness; TE and PTE do division to get scale efficiency. By collecting the input and output index data of the five universities from 2008 to 2010, and calculating with the software DEAP, the following conclusions are given:(1) The comprehensive efficiency of universities in Gansu province is stable relatively from 2008 to 2010; the scale efficiency of most universities is the standard level 1, not higher than the level. This shows that, in recent years, their running scale benefits are in IRS using stage and the scales are appropriate. There is no university with the diminishing benefit because of the large running scale;(2) There is one of the five universities, whose scale efficiency is lower than 1 from 2008 to 2010, decreasing returns to scale. Under the unchanged input of the current education resource, the university should has more output, so it should expand the current scale in order to improve the running benefit; (3) Satisfactorily, in the study, the pure technical effectivenesses of the five universities are all equal to 1, which states that, in recent years, the utilization efficiency of investment resource by universities in Gansu province is 100%, and these universities have become high-quality state-owned assets. The education resources are not wasted or overused, and the scale is not expanded recklessly. We do not continue to walk the "denotative" development, but realize the "connotative"development and get the high efficiency from the internal management.To sum up, most universities in Gansu province are in scale economy state. It does not only help improve the running level of universities, but also make full use of the university resources to enhance the management of universities and strengthen efficiency consciousness of universities to make its business further outward expansion. The use of DEA in benefit evaluation is common; likewise, the model C2R and model C2GS2 are applied to evaluate the scale economy to study the scale economy theory of universities in Gansu province, which is a beneficial attempt to guide the scientific development of provincial universities.