The effects of university mergers in China since 1990s

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discover and better understand the efficiency of university mergers from the perspective of knowledge production, with the research capability as the point of contact.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 20 colleges and universities directly under the central ministries that merged in 2000 were taken as the research samples. Factor analysis methods are adopted to calculate the public factor scores, which were taken as the basis of the time series analysis and similar comparative analysis.FindingsThe results indicated that, by the end of 2005, the reform of universities merger has a positive impact on the universities' knowledge production, but there was a “short‐term prosperity” after the merger happened, especially in the aspect of scientific research funding efficiency and the transformation of knowledge production outcomes.Originality/valueFew if any mergers are painless and in the literature on mergers it is generally agreed that it can take up to ten years for the wounds to heal and for the new institution forged from previously autonomous identities to operate as a cohesive and well integrated whole.