Unveiling the Resilience of University Student Cultivation Systems in China: An Analysis Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study conceptualizes universities as socio-technical systems and investigates the efficiency dynamics of student cultivation processes in Chinese universities under the external shock of the COVID-19 pandemic. Employing DEA-Malmquist and panel regression analysis of 40 Chinese universities from 2018 to 2022, we treat each institution as an integrated system of interrelated elements that collectively determine cultivation performance. Results indicate that while most institutions achieved optimal scale, their cultivation systems require improvement in pure technical efficiency and technological progress, suggesting performance depends more on internal configurations than resource volume. Regional analysis reveals that a higher proportion of eastern universities demonstrate lower systemic efficiency compared to central and western institutions, challenging assumptions about resource-rich environments automatically yielding superior system performance. Notably, no statistically significant direct pandemic impact on cultivation efficiency was identified, suggesting that efficiency patterns remained relatively stable during the pandemic period, which may reflect certain adaptive responses rather than direct evidence of systemic resilience through rapid reconfiguration of teaching and management processes. These findings imply that enhancing university cultivation systems requires targeted interventions in internal management structures and systemic integration of technological innovations, contributing to understanding how higher education systems respond to environmental perturbations and informing the design of resilient educational institutions.