This paper evaluates economies of scale and scope, and the merger effect among national universities in Japan. We apply SUR for the total translog cost function in FY2014 and FY2018. The main results are: (i) there exist economies of scale as a whole university; (ii) but there exist no clear economies of scope except for in research; (iii) there…

This qualitative study explored how neoliberalism contributes to the fragmentation of organizational identity in Saudi universities and the implications of this fragmentation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 faculty members from a Saudi public university. Thematic analysis revealed that neoliberal policies relating to governance,…

Objective: To evaluate how family functioning, family contributions to college expenses, and access to mentors are associated with college student's self-reported health and flourishing, and to test for moderation by family structure. Participants: Undergraduate college students (N = 238) recruited through an email list-serve at a large midwestern…

This study examines three key areas where economic policy intersects with development: the influence of international student enrollments on the academic major choices of domestic students in the U.S., the effects of high-speed railroad infrastructure on employment in China, and the influence of monetary policy on housing prices in China. Each…

Emerging Research Institutions (ERIs) are notably one of the most impactful organizations in a state system for addressing social mobility, workforce development, and economic growth of a region. Cultivating research at ERIs often requires the faculty to expand their skill sets beyond basic research to engage students and communities. Faculty…

Measuring the level of institutional capacity for grantsmanship within higher education informs administrators about the needs of their organization and where resources and institutional supports can be implemented to support faculty and staff. Receiving grant funding can lead to implementing cutting-edge programming and research support, which…

This study applies resource dependence theory to address the question of how the critical resource dependence relationship emerges in the context of a university's performance agreement. This study focuses on two Nordic universities that have adopted performance agreements while simultaneously using strong performance-based state funding. Resource…

The NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments (NCSE) for fiscal year 2023 marks the 50th consecutive year that NACUBO has published a Study of the endowments of institutions of higher learning. It would not be an overstatement to say that the Study chronicled five decades of unparalleled change. The investment industry and endowment management have…

Colleges and universities have increasingly turned to fundraising as an opportunity to meet short- and long-term goals of the institution without increasing tuition and adding to the student loan burden. As a result, there is increased competition among institutions and non-profits to appeal to the motivations of donors to support their…

Performance-based funding models for higher education, which tie state support for institutions to performance on student outcomes, have proliferated in recent decades. Some states now tie most of their higher education appropriations to completion outcomes and include bonus payments for historically underrepresented groups to address equity gaps…

US colleges and universities have long been the envy of the world. Institutional autonomy has fostered creativity among faculty, students, and staff. But this autonomy means that colleges tend to create their own solutions for every need. As a result, higher education suffers from costly redundancies that drive tuitions ever upward, putting higher…

Educational technology is the focus of increasing financial investment. In this article, we examine how edtech investors imagine and invest in the future of higher education through an empirical case study of a UK investing company. Utilising concepts and methods from economic sociology, we analyse how investment companies engage in…

Purpose: In recent times, universities have been faced with the challenge of implementing neoliberal ideas as a survival tactic. For instance, there is increasing pressure on academics globally to publish because of performance funding and other metrics like global rankings, which consider where and how much academics publish. This study explores…

This study examines the relationship between cost efficiency and privatization at 163 public research institutions in the United States between 2005 and 2015. We employ a spatial autoregressive (SAR) random-effects model and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to estimate the relationship between costs and four privatization variables: auxiliary…

While the effects of governance reforms on research have been widely discussed, little is known about their consequences for teaching at universities. This study examines the issue by considering competitive funding programs for teaching currently being introduced in German universities using interviews to explore why universities introduce…