Using network DEA to inform policy: The case of the teaching quality of higher education in England

Current literature on higher education (HE) performance only considers the production of graduates and not graduate employment. The latter needs to be factored into the HE production model as it not only measures the true impact of HE institutions (HEIs), but also provides policy implications on how resources should be allocated. Furthermore, the current literature on HE does not incorporate student responses into outputs, which should be in order to evaluate the teaching quality of HEIs. This study contributes to the existing literature by employing a network data envelopment analysis model that truly reflects the production process of HEIs and incorporates qualitative and quantitative data drawn from the UK Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) to capture the effects from teaching quality and the graduate employment outcomes. The study allows us to compare the actual TEF outcomes with the teaching efficiency scores and determine the sources of inefficiencies which lead to policy implications.