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This study aims to fill this gap by assessing the technical efficiency (TE) of 87 national HE systems using stochastic production frontier models. The empirical model considers, for each country, the number of universities in the 2023 SCImago Institutions Ranking (SIR) by knowledge areas as the dependent variable, and GDP, R&amp;D expenditures, and national English proficiency as explanatory variables. To offer a comprehensive analysis, the model is applied across all SIR ranking levels. Results show that Western countries generally lead in TE, but three performance profiles emerge: countries that concentrate their resources on a few HE institutions (efficient at the top SIR levels), others with homogeneous HE institutions (high TE across all levels), and low\u2010performance HE systems. Policy implications are discussed.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1111\/itor.70013","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,12]],"date-time":"2025-03-12T06:23:27Z","timestamp":1741760607000},"page":"3965-4007","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["A cross\u2010country analysis and comparison of the technical efficiency of higher education systems"],"prefix":"10.1111","volume":"32","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6068-0525","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Julio","family":"del Corral","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economic Analysis and Finance, Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Sociales University of Castilla\u2010La Mancha Ronda de Toledo s\/n Ciudad Real Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8415-6568","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eva M.","family":"de la Torre","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economics and Public Finance, Facultad de Ciencias Econ\u00f3micas y Empresariales Autonomous University of Madrid Avenida Francisco Tom\u00e1s y Valiente 5 Madrid Spain"},{"name":"UAM\u2010UC3M Research Institute for Higher Education and Science (INAECU) Getafe Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7322-7201","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniel","family":"Sol\u00eds","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Agribusiness Program, College of Agriculture &amp; 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