Assessing the cost-effectiveness of university academic recruitment and promotion policies

This paper develops an approach for higher education institutions to assess the economic efficiency of their recruitment and promotion practices concerning academic staff. Research output potential is a key criterion in most academic appointments. Generally, there is a long lead time between the conduct of research and its ultimate value in the form of disseminated knowledge. This means higher education institutions usually reward financially staff on the prospect of research output, albeit on the basis of research outputs achieved up to the point of recruitment or discretionary salary rise (e.g. through promotion). We propose a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model which can be used retrospectively to set salary costs against corresponding research outputs achieved as a measure of the financial efficacy of past recruitment and promotion practices. The analysis can identify potential issues with those practices and lead to improvements for the future.