These Florida colleges have the most faculty per student
Some college students don’t mind classes in large lecture halls. But others seek out small class settings, with greater possibilities for interacting with professors.
Not surprisingly, different schools offer different staffing levels when it comes to the number of faculty available to teach. Those levels have a direct effect on class sizes across a campus.
And the differences don’t always play out the way you might expect.
Take, for example, two of Florida’s largest universities — the University of Central Florida and the University of Florida.
Though both are massive public schools, UF employs nearly twice as many teaching faculty members per student, according to U.S. Department of Education records.
UF’s student-to-faculty ratio was 17 to 1 in 2021, meaning the school had 17 undergraduate students for every faculty member who teaches, while UCF’s ratio was 30, the highest in the state for a brick-and-mortar campus.
Overall, though, the schools with the lowest student-to-faculty ratios tend to be smaller private colleges.
Eckerd College in St. Petersburg had a student-to-faculty ratio of 11, for example, while the ratio at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach was 12.
Of course, a lower student-to-faculty ratio doesn’t mean that every class at a school will be smaller than those at a school with a larger ratio.
As the college-admission publication BestColleges points out, the class sizes that students experience can vary dramatically depending on the course level and area of study.
How much you should take these ratios into consideration in evaluating a school “depends on your preferences,” BestColleges advises.
“Smaller ratios generally suggest smaller class sizes,” the outlet says. “If you value close contact with professors and a more interactive learning environment, then smaller will definitely seem better. If you don’t mind being a face in the crowd in larger classes, then it probably doesn’t matter as much.”
Here are Florida schools ranked by student-faculty ratios.
Schools with lower numbers have more faculty per student. For this list we examined only schools that enroll at least 1,000 undergraduate students and are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The ratio calculations include only undergraduate students and instructors.
AdventHealth University — 6
St. Thomas University — 10
Rollins College — 11
Ringling College of Art and Design — 12 Eckerd College — 12
Palm Beach Atlantic University — 12 Stetson University — 12
Jacksonville University — 13 University of Miami — 13
Florida Southern College — 14
Florida Institute of Technology — 14 Florida A&M University — 14 Bethune-Cookman University — 15
Flagler College — 15
Barry University — 15
Everglades University —16
Saint Leo University —16
Nova Southeastern University — 17 University of Florida — 17
Ave Maria University — 18
Florida Polytechnic University — 18 Lynn University — 18
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach — 18
The University of Tampa —18 University of North Florida — 19
The University of West Florida — 21 Florida Atlantic University – 21
Edward Waters University – 22 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide — 22
Florida Gulf Coast University — 22 Florida State University – 22 University of South Florida – 22 Florida International University — 24 Southeastern University — 26 University of Central Florida – 30 University of Florida-Online – 49 Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard
Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at amarra@pbpost.com.