teaching and research (T&R) staff, number of T&R Staff with Senior Title, and total
number of JQ Scholars.^5(2) Financial Inputs
This kind of input is most frequently used in input–output studies. To univer-
sities research production, R&D grants are more often used to measurefinancial
input. A common situation for most 211Us is that they always have a surplus on
their R&D balance sheet every year, resulting into the unreliable of R&D expen-
ditures data. Therefore, we use R&D grants in current year to measurefinancial
input, rather than other expenditure data.
Considering the accessibility of data, we use R&D Grants (current year) as the
financial input indicator in NEAM and HSS disciplines.(3) Physical Inputs
In the time of“Mega Science”, the diversification and integration of sciences are
taking place simultaneously. Different disciplines are interacted, interpenetrated,
integrated, and then gradually develop into a mega science system with complex
structure, resulting into the essential change of knowledge production environment
(Xie and Liu 2006 ). Without support of such research platform, it’s hardly possible
for researchers to conduct any cutting-edge research. Thus, the number of varied
platforms, including research bases, research centers, key laboratories, key disci-
plines of all levels, can be used to measure the physical inputs that a university can
provide.
As a result of data availability, we choose the indicator of number of NK
disciplines to measure the physical inputs of 211Us, for both NEAM and HSS
disciplines. In China, the development of NK disciplines is an important national
project to meet the nation’s long-term development strategy. NK disciplines, which
are evaluated and approved by China Ministry of Education (MOE), are national
bases to nurture creative students and conduct high-level research. Today, NK
disciplines have been placed in the center of the whole higher education system in
China, and have played a key role in enhancing China’s innovation strength and
build China into an innovation country.
To date, MOE has launched three rounds of NK disciplines evaluations. Thefirst
round was launched in 1986–1987, and approved 416 units titled NK discipline in
108 universities, including 78 units in humanity and social sciences, 86 in natural
sciences, 163 in engineering, 36 in agriculture, 53 in medicine. The second round(^5) We don’t use CK scholars as the indicator measuring human input quality in NEAM disciplines,
since most of CK scholars are tenured faculty in foreign universities, whose research outcomes
might not fully belong to Chinese universities. Instead, we use JQ scholar to be the alternative
indictor measuring human input quality. Besides, considering the substantial differences on the
number of academicians from Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) or Chinese Academy of
Engineering (CAE) academicians within 211Us, we don’t take this indicator either to avoid too
much 0 values would bring trouble to DEA models. Other data like 973 chief scientist and 863
principle investigators are not available.
120 4 Evaluation on Research Efficiency of 211Us: The DEA Approach