Top 100 universities with the best student-to-staff ratio

Universities with more staff per student have a good chance of creating an engaged and interactive teaching environment. These are the top 100 universities in the world with the best ratios of students to teachers.

The top 100 universities with the best student-to-staff ratios are predominantly US colleges, closely followed by Japanese institutions.

Not a single UK university appears in the list, which includes institutions across 23 countries in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Unsurprisingly, the universities with the fewest students per staff member are small universities with a total enrolment of less than 5,000 students.

But many larger institutions, such as Johns Hopkins University in the United States, which has more than 15,000 students, also manage to maintain a favourable student-to-staff ratio. John Hopkins, which ranks in the World University Rankings 2016 in 11th position, has just over three and a half students for every staff member.

The California Institute of Technology – both the best small university in the world and the top institution overall – just makes the top 50 with almost seven students for every teacher. The University of Dhaka in Bangladesh has the same student-to-staff ratio despite counting more than 62,000 current students, making it the largest student body in the top 100.

Find out more about the top universities in Asia

All the top 100 are within the 600 best universities in the World University Rankings 2016; none has more than nine students for every staff member – well below the average 16.5 students per staff member for all 800 universities in the World University Rankings.

Outside the top 100, the UK university with the lowest student-to-staff ratio is University College London, which has 10.7 students per staff member.

At the Medical College of Wisconsin, there are in fact more staff than students, providing close attention and support for trainee doctors.

Although a low student-to-staff ratio does generally imply smaller class sizes, it is only a crude estimation of how much attention individual students will receive.

At least as relevant as average class size, which often varies by degree subject within the same university, is the number of hours students spend with their teachers.

While comprehensive data about contact hours for different courses at different institutions around the world are not easy to come by, prospective students can get a better idea of this, as well as other elements of the teaching environment at their desired colleges, by talking directly with current students.

Contact hours, like student-to-staff ratios, may be quantifiable, but even these data cannot tell you about how attentive and enthusiastic lecturers are, how quickly they reply to emails and turn around marked coursework, or what kinds of relationships they have with their students.

Nonetheless, having more staff relative to students is certainly a good grounding for creating a teaching environment with a high level of interaction, engagement and academic support.

At the University of Copenhagen – which is ranked in the top 15 – there are just over four students for every staff member, but current sociology student Malthe Agger reports having about 100 students in his lectures and 20 to 30 in workshops.

Even in the larger classes, he has managed to cultivate relaxed and informal relationships with his teachers.

He says: “I consider many of my professors as great academic icons, so I always make sure to talk to them in the breaks because not only are they always friendly and open, but I always learn new things every time I speak to them.

“I have never been afraid to ask a question during a lecture or student training. I think of many of my teachers as friends and equals, even though our degree and title might be different.”

 Top 100 universities with the best student-to-staff ratios

Rank	World University Rank 2016	University	Country	No. of FTE Students	Student:Staff Ratio
1	301-350	Medical College of Wisconsin	United States of America	1,211	0.6
2	201-250	Oregon Health and Science University	United States of America	2,838	1.1
3	201-250	Rush University	United States of America	1,855	2.1
4	601-800	Showa University	Japan	3,675	2.5
5	351-400	University of Nebraska Medical Center	United States of America	2,857	2.6
6	201-250	Medical University of Vienna	Austria	7,426	2.9
7	401-500	Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU)	Japan	2,872	3.3
=8	11	Johns Hopkins University	United States of America	15,128	3.6
=8	87	Vanderbilt University	United States of America	12,161	3.6
=10	601-800	Juntendo University	Japan	3,955	3.7
=10	601-800	Yokohama City University	Japan	4,122	3.7
12	501-600	Bauman Moscow State Technical University	Russian Federation	18,808	4
13	82	University of Copenhagen	Denmark	27,545	4.1
14	12	Yale University	United States of America	11,751	4.4
=15	90	Emory University	United States of America	12,338	4.5
=15	158	University of Rochester	United States of America	9,390	4.5
=17	201-250	Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences	Sweden	3,879	4.6
=17	201-250	Wake Forest University	United States of America	7,326	4.6
=19	20	Duke University	United States of America	15,172	4.8
=19	101	École Polytechnique	France	2,429	4.8
=21	167	Technical University of Denmark	Denmark	9,990	5
=21	201-250	Tohoku University	Japan	17,200	5
23	401-500	Saint Petersburg State University	Russian Federation	20,836	5.2
=24	401-500	National Yang-Ming University	Taiwan	4,496	5.4
=24	501-600	Université de Sherbrooke	Canada	13,438	5.4
26	164	Yeshiva University	United States of America	6,753	5.5
27	88	Kyoto University	Japan	22,809	5.6
=28	43	University of Tokyo	Japan	26,199	5.7
=28	60	Washington University in St Louis	United States of America	12,528	5.7
=28	161	University of Miami	United States of America	15,286	5.7
=31	79	University of Pittsburgh	United States of America	26,485	5.8
=31	251-300	Saint Louis University	United States of America	11,919	5.8
33	15	Columbia University	United States of America	25,055	5.9
34	601-800	Suez Canal University	Egypt	16,817	6
35	133	Case Western Reserve University	United States of America	9,259	6.4
=36	17	University of Pennsylvania	United States of America	20,376	6.5
=36	39	University of California, San Diego	United States of America	27,233	6.5
=36	104	University of Zurich	Switzerland	26,583	6.5
=36	351-400	University of New Mexico	United States of America	23,618	6.5
=40	104	Dartmouth College	United States of America	6,178	6.6
=40	195	Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin	Germany	6,853	6.6
=40	601-800	Amrita University	India	17,273	6.6
=43	401-500	Kyushu University	Japan	18,925	6.7
=43	601-800	National University of Science and Technology (MISiS)	Russian Federation	4,441	6.7
=45	30	New York University	United States of America	42,056	6.8
=45	401-500	Howard University	United States of America	10,297	6.8
=47	1	California Institute of Technology	United States of America	2,243	6.9
=47	10	University of Chicago	United States of America	14,221	6.9
=47	251-300	Tomsk Polytechnic University	Russian Federation	11,902	6.9
=47	601-800	University of Dhaka	Bangladesh	62,716	6.9
51	601-800	Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology	Russian Federation	5,395	7
=52	201-250	City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	10,015	7.1
=52	401-500	Novosibirsk State University	Russian Federation	7,131	7.1
=52	501-600	Blaise Pascal University	France	15,619	7.1
=52	501-600	King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals	Saudi Arabia	6,898	7.1
=52	601-800	Capital Medical University	China	11,506	7.1
=57	201-250	Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University	Russian Federation	17,155	7.2
=57	601-800	Nagasaki University	Japan	9,137	7.2
=59	63	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States of America	26,518	7.3
=59	201-250	Tokyo Institute of Technology	Japan	9,586	7.3
=59	301-350	National Research Nuclear University MePhI	Russian Federation	7,801	7.3
=62	501-600	Mahidol University	Thailand	27,402	7.5
=62	601-800	Osaka Prefecture University	Japan	8,051	7.5
64	601-800	Kumamoto University	Japan	10,226	7.6
=65	161	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation	30,822	7.7
=65	251-300	Linköping University	Sweden	17,866	7.7
=67	3	Stanford University	United States of America	15,596	7.8
=67	251-300	Osaka University	Japan	23,144	7.8
=67	601-800	National University of Sciences and Technology	Pakistan	9,808	7.8
=70	54	École Normale Supérieure	France	2,400	7.9
=70	201-250	University of Science and Technology of China	China	14,290	7.9
=70	301-350	Nagoya University	Japan	15,529	7.9
73	201-250	École Normale Supérieure de Lyon	France	2,218	8
=74	251-300	Indian Institute of Science	India	3,318	8.2
=74	301-350	University of Alaska Fairbanks	United States of America	3,837	8.2
=74	401-500	Hokkaido University	Japan	18,162	8.2
=74	401-500	National Institute of Applied Sciences of Lyon (INSA Lyon)	France	6,137	8.2
=74	501-600	Hiroshima University	Japan	14,686	8.2
=74	601-800	Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv	Ukraine	22,686	8.2
=74	601-800	Tottori University	Japan	6,248	8.2
81	42	Peking University	China	40,148	8.3
=82	7	Princeton University	United States of America	7,929	8.4
=82	117	University of Maryland, College Park	United States of America	31,331	8.4
=82	251-300	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia	35,889	8.4
=82	251-300	Tulane University	United States of America	11,381	8.4
=82	601-800	Kobe University	Japan	15,885	8.4
=87	94	Georgetown University	United States of America	15,408	8.5
=87	180	Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna	Italy	769	8.5
=87	351-400	University of Oulu	Finland	14,056	8.5
=87	401-500	University of Neuchâtel	Switzerland	4,358	8.5
=87	601-800	Niigata University	Japan	12,460	8.5
=92	64	Boston University	United States of America	24,789	8.6
=92	601-800	Okayama University	Japan	13,035	8.6
94	113	Pierre and Marie Curie University	France	27,862	8.7
=95	6	Harvard University	United States of America	20,152	8.9
=95	501-600	American University of Beirut	Lebanon	7,695	8.9
=95	601-800	Tokushima University	Japan	7,519	8.9
=96	5	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States of America	11,074	9
=96	21	University of Michigan	United States of America	41,786	9
=96	101	Rice University	United States of America	6,333	9