Transitioning to Technical Universities: A Productivity and Efficiency Analysis of Public Polytechnic Institutions in Ghana

Abstract

Purpose: The paper investigates the production and efficiency of 10 public polytechnic institutions multi-production in their transition to public technical universities in the 2015-2016 academic year in Ghana.

Design/methodology/approach – Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a linear programming model, is applied to study the relative multi-production efficiency of the polytechnic institutions.

Findings – The paper established that 50% of the public polytechnic institutions must continue to expand the enrolment of students into their programmes once they have transitioned into technical universities, since they enjoy economies of scale in their multi-productions and there are potential gains through efficiency.

Research limitations – The research findings are stated with caution, given the small average size of public polytechnics in terms of Full-Time Equivalence student numbers.

Practical implication – Matching inputs and outputs data for polytechnic institutions as higher education institutions (HEIs) to evaluate their efficiency and to encourage benchmarking as a means of improving performance in the academic year transiting them into public technical universities and beyond in Ghana, is thus welcome and unique and responds appropriately to the AU Agenda 2063 calls for evaluating the efficiency of higher education institutions on the continent.

Social implication- The paper addressed a significant gap in the current public higher education literature in Ghana.

Originality – To the author's knowledge, this is the first study using original data allowing analysis of multi-product performance and efficiency in the 10 public polytechnic institutions in Ghana before their transition to public technical universities.

Keywords: Ghana, public polytechnics, DEA, productivity, performance, efficiency

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/16-12-04

Publication date: November 30th 2025