Using Data Envelopment Analysis to Improve Estimates of Higher Education Institution's Per-student Education Costs

This paper puts forth a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to estimating higher education institutions' per-student education costs (PSCs) in an effort to redress a number of methodological problems endemic to such estimations, particularly the allocation of shared expenditures between education and other institutional activities. An example is given using data for a sample of higher education institutions in The Netherlands and the results are compared with PSC estimates generated by a more traditional approach. Although several methodological concerns still persist, the use of DEA is argued to increase the likelihood of producing more realistic cost estimates for individual institutions.