合并、扩招、新建校区与高等学校办学成本--基于中国高等教育变革的准实验

Mergers,Enrollment Expansion,New Campuses and the Running Costs of Higher Education Institutions--A Quasi-experimental Study Based on the Reform of Higher Education in China

基于规模经济理论,采用双向固定效应模型、事件研究法等因果推断方法,探究自20世纪90年代以来合并、扩招和新建校区等多轮高等教育变革对70所教育部直属高等学校办学成本的影响,有以下四个发现。第一,80%以上高等学校由老校区单一化办学模式演化成了包含合并校区、新建校区在内的多校区办学模式。第二,合并使高等学校生均总支出显著上涨;其中,师均工资福利支出在合并前期上涨明显,生均商品服务支出在中后期逐渐上涨;合并个数越多,办学成本越高;学科上的异质合并、办学实力上的强强合并、隶属关系上的非中央直属院校参与合并都会显著加大高等学校办学经费压力;被合并校区与老校区地理距离越远,办学成本越高。第三,1999年急剧扩招以来,高等学校生均总支出及商品服务支出迅速下降,短期内规模效益明显,办学成本随着扩招幅度的升高而下降。第四,持续快速扩招而衍生的新建校区使高等学校生均总支出再度上涨;其中生均基建和设备购置支出先升后降,生均商品服务支出上涨相对滞后;合并后又建设新建校区的高等学校办学成本更高;新校区选址迁建在当地大学城能够有效降低高等学校办学成本。高等学校应积极促进多校区融合发展,提高内部经费使用效益,推动高等教育内涵式发展。

This study,based on the theory of economies of scale,and such causal inference methods as the two-way fixed effects model and the event study methodology,aims to explore the effects of mergers,enrollment expansion and new campuses since the 1900s on the running costs of 70 universities directly under the Ministry of Education of the PRC.The results are as follows:First,more than 80%of the universities evolved from a single campus to a multiple campus by merging and building new campuses.Second,after the merger,the total expenditure per student rose sharply,driven first by an increase in salary and benefits per teacher and then by the expenditure per student on goods and services;an increase in the mergers of universities resulted in higher running costs;the heterogeneous merger of academic disciplines,the merger of those universities with great strength,and the merger of those universities not belonging to the centrally-administered universities significantly increased the pressure on their running costs;and a longer geographical distance between the merged campus and the old campus resulted in higher running costs.Third,with the rapid expansion of enrollment in 1999,the total expenditure per student and the expenditure on goods and services declined rapidly,indicating a direct short-term result of the economies of scale.Fourth,the new campuses resulting from continuous enrollment expansion increased the total expenditure per student,of which the expenditure per student on infrastructure and equipment rose at first but declined later,and the expenditure per student on goods and services rose slightly;the new campuses built after the merger bore higher running costs;and the new campuses built in a local university town could significantly reduce the running costs.Colleges and universities need to promote the integrated development of multiple campuses,and improve the efficiency in the use of internal funds so as to push forward the connotative development of higher education.