The quantity-quality tradeoff: a cross-national, longitudinal analysis of national student-faculty ratios in higher education

• Published in: Higher education Vol. 82; no. 1; pp. 39 - 60
• Main Authors: Buckner, Elizabeth, Zhang, You
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-07-2021; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Analysis; College Faculty; College Students; Comparative Education; Education; Educational systems; Educational Trends; Enrollment Rate; Enrollments; Expenditures; Foreign Countries; Gender Differences; Higher Education; International aspects; Longitudinal Studies; Low Income; Low income groups; Research & development expenditures; Statistics; Student-teacher ratio; Teacher Student Ratio; University faculty; University students; Canada; National student-faculty ratio; Higher education quality; Cross-national analysis; Massification
• ISSN: 0018-1560; 1573-174X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10734-020-00621-3

This article analyzes cross-national trends in national student-faculty ratios (SFRs) over the past five decades. In descriptive analyses, we find that SFRs have increased globally, driven by particularly large increases in low-income countries. We analyze two cross-national datasets to examine factors associated with national SFRs. We find that national SFRs are positively associated with gross tertiary enrollment rates and particularly so in low-income countries. In contrast, both the female share of faculty and research spending are associated with having lower national SFRs. The findings shed light on how national higher education systems are responding to massification pressures and suggest that differentiating faculty roles is one way that countries curb their rising SFRs as enrollments grow.