As an important subject of the national innovation system,universities play a pivotal role in the innovation - driven de- velopment strategy. This paper uses DEA - Malmquist model and spatial measurement methods to explore the spatial and temporal pat- terns of university research efficiency in 31 provinces and regions from 2009 to 2019. The research results show that the research effi- ciency of China’s universities in general shows a fluctuating upward trend from 2009 to 2019,and the key constraints on university re- search efficiency are research equipment and talent quality; the development of the research efficiency of universities in the four major economic regions shows the“Matthew effect”,that is,the regions with higher research efficiency of universities improve faster,while the regions with lower research efficiency of universities develop more slowly; the dynamic efficiency of university scientific research in China shows a positive spatial correlation on the whole,and the development of regional university scientific research positively pro- motes the development of the surrounding areas; the type of spatial correlation of the development of university scientific research in va- rious provinces and regions is of the high - efficiency type,valley type,and low efficiency type,and the development of university sci- entific research in some provinces and regions shows significant spatial correlation.