Abstract:As an important part of the national innovation system, how to improve the innovation efficiency of colleges and universities is an unavoidable problem in the process of building an innovative country in China. Using the third-order super-efficiency EBM-Windows model, this paper makes an empirical study on the knowledge innovation and knowledge transformation efficiency of universities in 29 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) in China from 2007 to 2018. It is found that the average knowledge innovation efficiency of universities is 0.675, and the average knowledge transformation efficiency is 0.543, which has not achieved DEA efficiency. The efficiency of knowledge transformation in colleges and universities in the eastern region is significantly higher than that in the central and western regions. Environmental factors such as socio-economic environment, government support, resource endowment and marketization level have a significantly higher impact on the redundancy of input in the stage of knowledge innovation and transformation of universities in the eastern region than in the central and western regions and the northeast region. This paper comprehensively analyzes the efficiency value and average annual growth rate of knowledge innovation and transformation in colleges and universities in various regions, and designs four paths to improve the innovation efficiency of colleges and universities. Finally, some countermeasures and suggestions are put forward to improve the efficiency of knowledge innovation and transformation in colleges and universities.