By the Numbers: Faculty-to-Student Ratios

Understanding our current faculty-to-student ratios is important to ensure that we effectively utilize our resources and deliver upon our academic programs. There are a number of ways that faculty-to-student ratios can be calculated. We will examine two, headcount ratio and teaching FTE ratio. The headcount ratio is the number of full-time faculty we have employed in a program area compared to the number of students enrolled in that area. The teaching FTE ratio compares the total proportion of full-time faculty time committed to teaching to the number of students enrolled in a program area and excludes research and service time. 

Not all of our full-time faculty serve as members of the graduate faculty, so it is important to consider our undergraduate and graduate programs separately. For ratios where undergraduate and graduate enrollments are combined, the full faculty has been used in calculations. 

Undergraduate Headcount Ratio

In fall 2022, the college had 945 students enrolled in the following programs. 

During the 2022-2023 academic year, the college employed 36 full-time faculty across five programs. While several faculty teach across multiple programs, each has been assigned to a primary program area. 

The highest undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio, 58:1, is found in Sports Media and Communication, while the lowest ratio is found in journalism, 15:1. 

Graduate Headcount Ratio

In fall 2022, our largest graduate program was integrated media and communications, while our smallest was the financial communications graduate certificate. 

Again, not all of our faculty are members of the graduate faculty. During 2022-2023, the college employed 36 full-time faculty, while only 28 are members of the graduate faculty.  

The ratio of faculty to students in our graduate programs is much lower than in our undergraduate programs. The college is currently considering a proposal to add a sports media and communication graduate certificate. Understanding student demand for the certificate and our high undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio in this program will be important for the success of this future program. 

Undergraduate Teaching FTE to Student Ratio

Headcount ratios can provide insight into faculty hiring needs, both our need to hire temporary faculty (lecturer/s) and our need to pursue future hires of full-time faculty. Teaching FTE-to-student ratios can provide insight into the types of faculty we need to hire on a full-time basis – tenure-leading or professors of practice, who contribute a greater proportion of time to our teaching mission. 

Teaching FTE is determined by multiplying a faculty member's teaching apportionment (the proportion of time they spend on teaching) against their FTE. This allows for an understanding of the impact of half/time faculty or faculty who depart or join the college midyear on the college’s teaching needs. It also provides insight into the proportion of faculty time we as a college contribute to teaching, versus our research or service missions. 

Sports media and communication remains the highest ratio at 93:1, while journalism remains the lowest at 25:1. Broadcasting is very close behind journalism at 26:1.

Graduate Teaching FTE to Student Ratio

The same method can also be used to examine our graduate programs. 

Understanding the composition of our faculty, as well as our enrollment trends is critical to understanding both our short-term and long-term faculty needs.