The role of the non-academic staff heterogeneity in the performance of European universities

Abstract The emergence of the new public management paradigm, the growing number of students, and intensified international competition for external funding in large research projects have pressed universities to expand both the size and role of non-academic staff (i.e., administrative and technical personnel) to support the academic staff in addressing these increasingly complex challenges effectively. While the contribution of academic staff to university performance is well established, professors engage in teaching, research, and knowledge transfer activities, the role of non-academic staff remains more ambiguous. Their impact can be beneficial if they facilitate and enhance the core activities of academic staff. However, if their presence leads to greater administrative burdens, diverting time away from teaching and research, their effect may be detrimental. We provide new insights into this critical issue by examining European universities. We account for the heterogeneity of non-academic staff as an “unobserved" factor and estimate it using a nonparametric approach. We then evaluate its impact on university performance across Europe. Our empirical analysis, based on a sample of 401 European universities, reveals that the proportion of non-academic staff does not exert a statistically significant effect on university efficiency. In contrast, their unobserved heterogeneity, capturing qualitative and structural differences beyond mere size and composition, emerges as an important determinant of university performance. The latent factor significantly influences both the efficient frontier and the distribution of inefficiencies. Universities exhibiting very high levels of staff heterogeneity combined with large administrative shares tend to experience reduced efficiency, consistent with patterns of bureaucratic overload. Conversely, universities that effectively manage and integrate diverse professional competences within their non-academic workforce are able to transform heterogeneity into a productive resource, enhancing both teaching and research efficiency across Europe.