Talk of making聽efficiencies in higher education is using 鈥渁 frame of thinking which is not fit for this sector鈥�, a conference has heard, with sector leaders urging universities to find new ways of measuring outputs that better show their worth to societies.

Speaking at a London conference hosted by UNICA, a network of European capital city universities, King鈥檚 College London professor Liviu Matei聽said:聽鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of talk about efficiency in higher education. This vocabulary comes mainly from policymakers.鈥�

鈥淭here is very little research on efficiency,鈥� he added. 鈥淭he research that exists is all microeconomics, and it doesn鈥檛 work, because of the ratio of output to investment 鈥� what is the output for research? Is it the number of citations? Is it the number of articles?鈥�

鈥淗igher education is not a product,鈥� said Matei, also head of the King鈥檚 School of Education, Communication and Society. 鈥淭his is one area where research is underdeveloped. We don鈥檛 have something else to propose instead of microeconomics, which doesn鈥檛 work for the case of efficiency in higher education.鈥�

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Ha Wei, vice-dean at Peking University鈥檚 School of Education, Beijing, said measuring output 鈥渋s going to be the fundamental dilemma within higher education鈥�, noting that at his university, faculty submit metrics at the end of each year including their teaching hours, credit units taught, journal articles published and impact generated. 鈥淎t the same time, not everything can be counted that can be funded, and not everything that can be funded can be counted.鈥�

Addressing public perception of output, he noted that a 2024 Economist article claiming that universities fail to drive economic growth has been used to 鈥渃riticise the Chinese higher education system鈥�, adding, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not entirely true, but that鈥檚 the impression we have to deal with.鈥�

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Marcelo Knobel, executive director of The World Academy of Sciences and former rector of the University of Campinas, S茫o Paulo, said universities are 鈥渇ailing at the public communication of the importance of higher education鈥�, describing common output metrics as 鈥渕ore for [the sector鈥檚] internal consumption鈥�.

鈥淚f we don鈥檛 show to society as a whole that universities are a fundamental pillar for the well-being of society, we are failing,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e should try as much as possible to make an effective communication to society about the importance of universities 鈥� not only [through] the quality indicators that we are able to produce and to study, but in terms of language, and in terms of reaching younger generations.鈥�

As we are living in a fake news world, the facts don鈥檛 matter very much. It鈥檚 the message, the narrative, that is the important thing,鈥� Knobel said. 鈥淲e have to win the narrative battle.鈥�

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com