Student faculty
How is this often cited measure evaluated for the Times Higher Education - QS World University Rankings?
Student Faculty Ratio is, at present, the only globally comparable and available indicator that has been identified to address the stated objective of evaluating teaching quality. Clearly it is not a satisfactory as a qualitative classroom evaluation as might be considered for a domestic teaching assessment, but it does speak to the notion of "commitment to teaching", which ought to correlate strongly, if not compltely with the level of teaching quality.
For the calculation of this indicator, QS gathers two distinct datasets:
- Full Time Equivalent (FTE) students
QS requests an array of data pertaining to students, much of which supports university profiles on this website, much of which may be used in the future to enrich the rankings metrics, but at present the total student numbers are first drawn from the addition of separate undergraduate and postgraduate numbers supplied to us. Where this data is unavailable or incomplete, total student numbers are used. - Full Time Equivalent (FTE) faculty
Faculty numbers used are totals... whilst it would be ideal to separate the notions of teaching and research and use the former for calculating this indicator and the latter for the Citations per Faculty indicator, it has not been possible to do so as data to that degree of distinction has so far proved unavailable for many countries in the study. The definition of exactly what data we request has evolved gradually over the years to minimize ambiguity.
Student Faculty Ratio is a commonly used measure in many evaluations and rankings around the world. There are countless different ways to do it. In the UK, for example, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), compile the results of a very detailed Student Faculty Ratio, but the underlying data is more sophisticated than that available in many other countries.
QS sources data not only directly from institutions themselves but also from government ministries, agencies such as HESA, web sources and other third-parties. Where possible data are checked against multiple sources to verify its authenticity.
Frequently Asked Questions: Student Faculty
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How is ‘Number of international graduate/postgraduate students’ defined?
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It refers to the number of graduate / postgraduate students who are foreign nationals. The term ‘international’ is hereby determined by citizenship. For EU countries, this includes all foreign nationals, even nationals of other EU states. In Hong Kong, this includes students from Mainland China.
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How is ‘Number of graduate/postgraduate students’ defined?
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It is the number of students pursuing a higher-level degree (Master and Doctorate), including both taught and research postgraduates (e.g. PhD students)
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How is ‘Number of international undergraduate students’ defined?
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It is the number of undergraduate students who are foreign nationals. The term ‘international’ is hereby determined by citizenship. For EU countries, this includes all foreign nationals, even nationals of other EU states. In Hong Kong, this includes students from Mainland China. Please exclude all exchange students.
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How is ‘Number of undergraduate students’ defined?
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The number of undergraduate students refers to all students pursuing a Bachelor’s level or equivalent degree. This excludes certificates/diplomas and associate’s degrees.
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How is ‘Number of international faculty staff’ defined?
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It is the number of academic faculty staff who are of foreign nationality. The term ‘international’ is hereby determined by citizenship. For EU countries, this includes all foreign nationals, even if from another EU state. In Hong Kong, this includes professors from Mainland China. Inclusion and exclusion mirrors those for academic faculty staff.
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How is ‘Number of academic faculty staff’ defined?
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The number of academic staff is the total number of academic faculty staff who are responsible for planning, directing and undertaking teaching only, research only or both teaching and research. Please include: vice-chancellors, deputy vice-chancellors, principals, professors, heads of school, associate professors, principal lectures and tutors. Please exclude research assistants, PhD students who contribute to teaching, and exchange scholars or visiting professors who are members of another university.
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What is the definition of research assistant that is utilized by QS?
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The important distinction for us is that staff counted as ‘research only’ should be academically involved in that research and should be likely to publish research outputs.
A research assistant, in our understanding, is any individual who is not doing own research and is therefore not likely to publish own research outputs. Said individual is (only) involved in research in terms of operation execution , such as lab technician or equipment operator.Category: Methodology: Student Faculty Ratio, Methodology: Citations, Methodology: International Factorsxx
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What is Full Time Equivalent (FTE)?
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Full –Time Equivalent (FTE) is the total number of full-time entity it would take to meet the commitments currently met by both the full-time entity and the part-time entity. If there is no part-time entity, then FTE figure is equal to the headcount figure. (Entity in this case refers to either academic staffs or students).
Category: Methodology: Student Faculty Ratio, Methodology: Citations, Methodology: International Factorsxx
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Why do we need Full Time Equivalent (FTE) figures?
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The purpose of using Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) is to counter any bias universities that either have a very high or very low number of part-time students or staff.
Universities around the world have slightly different interpretations of what FTE means, but all of them are providing calculations or educated estimates that make more sense than purely using a headcount number.
As a verification guideline, we would generally expect the FTE figure to sit somewhere between the full-time headcount and the total headcount. FTE figures which are utilized to compile the rankings.
Category: Methodology: Student Faculty Ratio, Methodology: Citations, Methodology: International Factorsxx
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How are Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) figures calculated?
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Figures/ headcounts calculated here are based on a full academic year.
The following is the formula for FTE used by QS:
FTE Estimate = Full-Time Headcount + 1/3 of Part-Time Headcount
Headcount is basically the number of heads.
To visualize the example:
No. of Full-time students: 10,000 headcounts
No. of Part-time students: 4,000 headcounts
No. of Full-Time Academic Staff: 5,000 headcounts
No. of Part-Time Academic Staff: 0 headcounts
Results:
FTE for Students = 10,000 + (1/3 of 4000) = 11333.33
FTE for Academic Staff = 5,000
Please note that a student can be represented more than once as an FTE.
If a student is taking a full-time program and a part-time program, he/she will be counted into the Full-Time Headcount AND Part-Time Headcount.
Category: Methodology: Student Faculty Ratio, Methodology: Citations, Methodology: International Factorsxx
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