Meaning & use
student-to-faculty ratio
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Meanings
nouncountable
The number of students in a school or university compared with the number of teachers there.
Grammar: Countable and usually singular; it appears with 'a' or 'the': a low student-to-faculty ratio.
Patterns
- a student-to-faculty ratio of 12 to 1
- a low/high student-to-faculty ratio
- improve the student-to-faculty ratio
The college advertises a student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1.
Small classes and a low student-to-faculty ratio were the main reasons she chose that university.
Officials said the student-to-faculty ratio had risen after several teaching posts were cut.
nounsingularfigurative
A way of judging how much individual attention each student can expect from teaching staff.
Grammar: Used in this figurative way mainly in brochures and rankings; the phrase itself stays singular.
Patterns
- use the student-to-faculty ratio as a measure of something
- the student-to-faculty ratio matters
Parents often treat the student-to-faculty ratio as a rough measure of how much help their child will get.
The student-to-faculty ratio matters less in large lecture courses than in small seminars.
Common combinations
- a low student-to-faculty ratio
- A low student-to-faculty ratio usually means smaller classes.
- a student-to-faculty ratio of 15 to 1
- The department reports a student-to-faculty ratio of 15 to 1.
- improve the student-to-faculty ratio
- The new budget is meant to improve the student-to-faculty ratio.
- calculate the student-to-faculty ratio
- You calculate the student-to-faculty ratio by dividing total enrollment by the number of teachers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- student-staff ratio
- Common in British English and includes all teaching and support staff, not just faculty.
- class size
- Refers to how many students are in one class, which is a different measure from the overall comparison of students to teachers.
Commonly confused: student-to-faculty ratio or faculty?
student-to-faculty ratio vs faculty
'Faculty' means the teaching staff of a university or one of its departments; the ratio phrase compares those staff with students.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase correctly?
Choose one answer.
'A ratio of 12 to 1' is the standard pattern, so option A fits. Option B adds an unnecessary 'for 1 teacher', option C drops the needed 'of', and option D puts 'students' in the wrong place.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “student-to-faculty ratio”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.