A Study on the Efficiency and Productivity Analysis of University-Industry Cooperation Foundations : Focusing on 21 Major National Universities
Tae Geun Kim, Sung Rok Kim, Hee Cheol Shim · Asia-pacific Journal of Convergent Research Interchange · 2025
Major universities in South Korea are increasingly required to fulfill additional roles, such as providing highly skilled professionals and supplying new technologies, in addition to their traditional roles in education and research.Since the 2000s, the growing interest in university-industry research collaboration and the revision of related laws (such as the Industrial Education Promotion and Industry-Academic Cooperation Act) has led to establishing and operating university-affiliated industryacademic cooperation foundations.The government has also promoted financial initiatives, such as the Leaders in Industry-University Cooperation (LINC) program, to encourage industry-academic cooperation activities.However, industry-academic cooperation foundations' operational efficiency and productivity vary significantly among universities.It has become imperative to evaluate these foundations' operational efficiency and productivity indices to enhance their practical activation, improve efficiency, and establish effective systems.Accordingly, this study conducted an efficiency analysis of the operations of 21 national university-affiliated industry-academic cooperation foundations from 2021 to 2023 using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA).The analysis yielded the following results: First, the CCR model showed that the average efficiency decreased slightly from 88% in 2021 to 84% in 2023.Second, the BCC model revealed that assuming CRS (constant returns to scale), the average efficiency was 87%, while under VRS (variable returns to scale), it was 93%.This indicates that the most effective operational efficiency could be achieved by reducing inputs while maintaining the current level of productivity.Third, the scale efficiency analysis revealed that, out of a total of 63 cases (21 institutions over three years), 30 cases (48%) exhibited constant returns to scale, 1 case (1%) showed decreasing returns to scale, and 32 cases (51%) displayed increasing returns to scale.These findings highlight the disparities in operational efficiency based on the size and regional characteristics of national universities.In particular, given social issues such as the decline in the school-age population and the potential disappearance of regional areas, systematic improvements for efficient operations are deemed crucial for small-scale universities in provincial regions.Therefore, a strategic approach to