Scale and Scope Economies of Distance Education in Australian Universities

Autor/inn/en	Zhang, Liang-Cheng; Worthington, Andrew C.
Titel	Scale and Scope Economies of Distance Education in Australian Universities
Quelle	In: Studies in Higher Education, 42 (2017) 9, S.1785-1799 (15 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Zhang, Liang-Cheng) ORCID (Worthington, Andrew C.)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0307-5079
DOI	10.1080/03075079.2015.1126817
Schlagwörter	Distance Education; Higher Education; Foreign Countries; Universities; Public Colleges; Dropout Rate; Dropouts; Electronic Learning; Synchronous Communication; Australia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Distance study; Distance learning; Fernunterricht; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Ausland; University; Universität; Drop-out; Drop-outs; Dropout; Early leavers; Schulversagen; Australien
Abstract	Despite compelling qualitative arguments for scale and scope economies in university-level distance education, as distinct from traditional class-based face-to-face instruction, there is little rigorous quantitative evidence in support. In this paper, we explore the scale and scope economies of distance education using a multiplicatively separable cost function and a sample of 37 Australian public universities over the 10-year period from 2003 to 2012. The results suggest strong overall scale and scope economies and product-specific scale economies for distance education. Further, the economies of scope for distance education are increasing with mean output, suggesting an increasing cost benefit of producing distance education in conjunction with traditional class-based face-to-face teaching. This provides an important implication: when allocating places for different modes of attendance or considering further expansion of student numbers, there should be a priority on distance education as a means of achieving significant cost savings. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01