Maximizing Efficiency and Mobility in Education Funding: A Three-Stage Centralized Data Envelopment Analysis Model

Financial resource planning is essential for resource allocation and overall university performance enhancement. Allocating financial resources across universities by the central government can be a complex and time-consuming task, particularly when the Ministry of Education is responsible for coordinating and monitoring a group of universities in China. In addition, education funding from the central government is always limited, and therefore, such funding must be allocated efficiently. However, the importance of the mobility of these financial resources across universities is often ignored. To address this issue, this chapter proposes a three-stage centralized data envelopment analysis method to analyze university efficiency from the financial resource perspective, focusing on the transfer-out and transfer-in of different universities. This approach aims to maximize the efficiency of individual universities while also considering overall adjustments. The results can provide an essential reference for the overall planning of financial resources policies, timely adjustment of the organization's operating conditions, and enhancement of the organization's ability to adapt to changes in the financial resources environment to improve operational performance and maintain sustainable management.