THE FUNDING AND EFFICIENCY OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN CROATIA AND SLOVENIA: A NON-PARAMETRIC COMPARISON WITH EU AND OECD COUNTRIES

The paper applies a non-parametric approach, i.e. data envelopment analysis (DEA), to assess the relative technical efficiency of higher education across countries, with a particular focus on Croatia and Slovenia. When estimating the efficiency frontier we focus on measures of quantities outputs/outcomes. The results show that the relatively high public expenditure per student in Croatia should have resulted in a better performance regarding the outputs/outcomes, i.e. a higher rate of higher education school enrolment, a greater rate of labor force with a higher education and a lower rate of the unemployed who have a tertiary education. On the other hand, regardless of the input-output/outcome mix, the higher education system in Slovenia is shown to have a much higher level of efficiency compared to both Croatia and many other comparable EU and OECD countries.