COMPETITION AND EFFICIENCY IN HIGHER EDUCATION: THE CASE OF GALICIAN BUSINESS SCHOOLS

Since the conference on The Role of Universities in the Europe of Knowledge the future of 21st century Europe has been closely tied to the development of higher education. In the current context of stagnation and economic recession efficient management of resources is the key to achieving the objectives set. To this end, increased competition among universities should serve to stimulate improvement in productivity. In the last decade, Schools of Business have adopted the use of an international system of accreditation to guarantee the quality of education offered. Exceptional cases aside, faculties and schools of business in Spain, including those in Galicia, have kept on the sidelines of this trend revealing a lack of interest in competing on an international market which could have a negative effect on efficiency. This paper studies the two Galician faculties of Economic and Business Sciences which offered a five-year degree in Business Administration and Management over the 1997-2002 period, which were subject to the same system of financing and regulation. The analysis sets out to determine their efficiency and confirm the convergence or divergence of the results in order to assess the level of competition between the two.