Home  Journals  Economic Analysis: Theory and Practice  4(511) - 2021 April

A mathematical model to evaluate return on investment in higher education

Received: 11 March 2021

Received in revised form: 20 March 2021

Accepted: 2 April 2021

Available online: 29 April 2021

Subject Heading: MATHEMATICAL METHODS AND MODELS

JEL Classification: C3, J17, J22, J23, J24

Pages: 772–788

https://doi.org/10.24891/ea.20.4.772

Subject. The article assesses the effectiveness of investments in higher education.
Objectives. The aim is to assess the performance of investments in higher education for a Master’s student at the Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, in the field of Economics, Business Analyst Specialty.
Methods. The methodology, presented in the study, includes three stages. The first assesses the demand for skills, the second assesses how the supply of skills match the demand, and the third – the effectiveness of investments in higher education, based on the developed mathematical model, scenario analysis, and decision tree.
Results. We revealed that for a business analyst, the most important categories of skills are project management, decision-making, organizational competencies, communication, and knowledge of corporate software. The most required skills in these categories are the knowledge of business processes, project documentation, systems thinking, teamwork, communication, and well-bred speech. The analysis of correspondence between the competencies required by employers and those acquired in the training process showed that Master’s graduates meet the demand for the position of a business analyst in the labor market by 69%.
Conclusions. The evaluation of the effectiveness of investment in higher education for a Master’s student of the Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, in the field of Economics, Business Analyst Specialty, shows that it is more profitable for a Bachelor graduate to continue studying for a Master's degree, rather than go straight to work.

Keywords: investment performance evaluation, skills gap, higher education, skill demand

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