Costs, complexity and size relationships in the UK university system
Costs, complexity and size relationships in the UK university system
This thesis is about costs and cost drivers, and economies of scale in the UK university system. The cost-cost driver relationship is assessed from a group and system perspective. Teaching and research are separately studied. Correlation, and simple and multiple regression techniques are employed on 1984-85 to 1989-90 and 1993-94 universities data.
The thesis reveals that size and complexity, followed by quality are important drivers of total and unit costs of teaching and research. The cost drivers were positively correlated with total costs. The correlation with unit costs was found to be generally negative on an individual cost driver basis but there was variation between groups in terms of the magnitude and sign (positive or negative) of the correlation and in the degree of significance.
Out of the seven hypotheses tested, on various relationships between costs and cost drivers and on economies of scale tissues, three were fully supported. Three others were found to be not conclusive, and one showed evidence to the contrary. The research indicated that generally size and complexity increase together but work in opposite directions from some point on in terms of their influence on unit costs of teaching and of research. There was some evidence to indicate existence of economies of scale in research in the lower research category of universities. A finding of the research was that size and quality generally go together in teaching and in research. Unit teaching costs were found to be broadly higher and unit research costs lower for higher quality institutions. The findings of this research provide some insights for the management of costs in higher education institutions and for more focused development of the university system in the years ahead by the government and funding councils.
University of Southampton
Thillaisundaram, Arumugam
1998
Thillaisundaram, Arumugam
Thillaisundaram, Arumugam
(1998)
Costs, complexity and size relationships in the UK university system.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
This thesis is about costs and cost drivers, and economies of scale in the UK university system. The cost-cost driver relationship is assessed from a group and system perspective. Teaching and research are separately studied. Correlation, and simple and multiple regression techniques are employed on 1984-85 to 1989-90 and 1993-94 universities data.
The thesis reveals that size and complexity, followed by quality are important drivers of total and unit costs of teaching and research. The cost drivers were positively correlated with total costs. The correlation with unit costs was found to be generally negative on an individual cost driver basis but there was variation between groups in terms of the magnitude and sign (positive or negative) of the correlation and in the degree of significance.
Out of the seven hypotheses tested, on various relationships between costs and cost drivers and on economies of scale tissues, three were fully supported. Three others were found to be not conclusive, and one showed evidence to the contrary. The research indicated that generally size and complexity increase together but work in opposite directions from some point on in terms of their influence on unit costs of teaching and of research. There was some evidence to indicate existence of economies of scale in research in the lower research category of universities. A finding of the research was that size and quality generally go together in teaching and in research. Unit teaching costs were found to be broadly higher and unit research costs lower for higher quality institutions. The findings of this research provide some insights for the management of costs in higher education institutions and for more focused development of the university system in the years ahead by the government and funding councils.
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Published date: 1998
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Local EPrints ID: 463391
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/463391
PURE UUID: 4e616e88-94a3-4e56-a64e-c7e0f5bed951
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 20:51
Last modified: 04 Jul 2022 20:51
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Author:
Arumugam Thillaisundaram
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