Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Asia Pacifc Education Review (2020) 21:423–440 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-020-09634-0 Assessing the research efciency of Chinese higher education institutions by data envelopment analysis Jiali Jiang 1  · Soo Kyoung Lee 2  · Min‑Joo Rah 3 Received: 5 June 2019 / Revised: 19 June 2020 / Accepted: 22 June 2020 / Published online: 15 July 2020 © Education Research Institute, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea 2020 Abstract This paper examined the research efciency of Chinese higher education institutions with a sample of 105 universities (35 universities in each group of “Project 211”, “Project 985” and general universities). In order to analyze the relative research efciency among “Project 211”and “Project 985” and general universities, the method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was implemented with EnPAS software. The result showed that research efciency of “Project 211” universities was lower than “Project 985” and general universities. Secondly, the research efciency of the selected universities in China difered by region (eastern, central, western) and the type of universities (polytechnic, comprehensive, others). The implications of this study were presented at the government and university levels. The government should rearrange the fnancial support programs and evaluation criteria for universities. Universities also need to formulate strategies and systems for efcient operation and performance improvement. Keywords Research efciency · Higher education · Chinese universities · Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Introduction Many countries around the world are constantly carrying out educational reforms in order to improve the competitive- ness of their higher education. Particularly, universities play important roles to contribute to the nation’s scientifc and technological achievement. Along with the rapid develop- ment of Chinese economy, higher education is also compre- hensively growing. With the expansion of higher education enrollment rate, China has the world’s largest higher educa- tion market with signifcant increase of government’s invest- ment. In 2017, according to the National Statistics Bureau: the investment in higher education was 1.1109 trillion yuan. According to the Education statistics published by the Min- istry of Education in 2017, there are 2631 universities in this country. Along with increase in the number of and the investment amount on universities, scientifc research activi- ties have increased. For example, the number of SCI papers published in China amounted to more than 216,000 in 2013 and the number of citations in 2012 accounted for 12.4% of American papers while it was only 6.6% in 2008 (Yang et al. 2018). Although scientifc research activities have increased with the governmental investment, it is important to examine the impacts of higher education reforms particularly on research efciency. In order to enhance the national competitiveness, the Chinese government emphasized science and education, especially on the efcient management and quality of higher education. The most notable governmental initiatives for Chinese higher education include the construction of "Pro- ject 211" and "Project 985". 1 In 1995, facing the twenty-frst century, the "Project 211" was proposed by the government to focus on the construction of about 100 higher education institutions and several key disciplines. "Project 985" was a construction project carried out in 1998 to build a number * Soo Kyoung Lee soolee3791@gmail.com Jiali Jiang jialify25@163.com Min-Joo Rah demosrah@chungbuk.ac.kr 1 Binzhou University, 5th Street #391, Huanghe Road, Binzhou City 256600, Shandong, China 2 Namseoul University, 91 Daehak-ro, Seonghwan-eup, Seobuk-gu, Cheonan, Chungnam 31020, South Korea 3 Chungbuk National University, N4 #203, 1 Chungdae-ro, Seowon-gu, Cheongju, Chungbuk 20644, South Korea 1 The universities involved in “Project 211” and “Project 985” are also called as Project universities.