Performance comparison and efficiency measurement of universities in Turkey: Panel data analysis

Today, one of the main and most important locomotives of knowledge transfer is Higher Education Institutions. The efficiency of higher education is of high importance for policymakers and higher education professionals in setting up innovative strategies. In recent years, many studies have been conducted in the literature on measuring the efficiency of higher education institutions and investigating the factors that determine their efficiency. Compared to the studies conducted in the world, especially panel data-based studies for universities in Turkey are relatively less. The thesis has a unique value in terms of scrutinize universities in Turkey, working with panel data, and investigating the factors that determine the efficiency of universities within the scope of entrepreneurship and innovation activities. The aim of the thesis is to calculate the efficiency scores of the Turkish universities' research and entrepreneurship and innovation focus by data envelopment analysis, to investigate the change over time by Malmquist Total Factor Productivity Index and to examine the environmental factors affecting the efficiency scores with panel Tobit model, pooled least squares method (POLS), fractional regression and Simar-Wilson bootstrap truncated regression based on the data for the years 2011 – 2016. According to the results of the research, no systematic improvement was observed in the focus of research, entrepreneurship and innovation efficiencies of the universities measured for the years 2011 – 2016. According to the second stage analysis to determine the drivers of efficiency; presence of technopark and GDP per capita by region have a positive effect on the efficiency scores in the focus of research and entrepreneurship and innovation activities. Additionally, with reference to the results, the efficiency of the universities in the Central Anatolia and Marmara Region is higher than the universities in the Blacksea, Eastern and Southeastern Regions. Moreover, the existence of a medical faculty, vocational high school, and the number of undergraduate students per academician adversely affect efficiency.