Benchmarking Research Performance in Efficiency Analyses: Third Party Funding vs Publications

In the literature on the efficiency of universities, either third-party funding or the number of publications tends to be used as an indicator of institutional research performance. This study examines whether both indicators lead to a similar or different assessments of universities’ efficiency. The results suggest that the efficiency figures based on third-party funding and publications measures are highly correlated, meaning that the research indicators can be seen as equivalent when evaluating universities.