BGSU's Student to Faculty Ratio & Faculty Composition

What is the Faculty Composition Like at Bowling Green State University - Main Campus?

Get a feel for student life at BGSU by checking out the information on classes and faculty below.

Importance of Faculty Composition at Bowling Green State University - Main Campus

The student to faculty ratio, as well as the number of full-time vs. part-time instructors, can give you an idea of how much attention you'll receive as an individual student at BGSU.

Student to Faculty Ratio Here is Low

Bowling Green State University - Main Campus, with 19 students for every instructional faculty member, ranks among the lowest in comparison to the national average of 14:1. This ratio indicates that the number of students split between the same faculty is much higher than normal, and could mean students will experience larger class sizes and fewer opportunities to connect with professors, especially in introductory courses.

Instructional Staff at the College

The following table shows all the employees the school considers instructional, and therefore, part of the above student-to-faculty ratio. These include both those employees designated as either "primarily instructional" or as "instructional combined with research/public service". It does not include employees that have been identified by Bowling Green State University - Main Campus as primarily performing research or public service.

This Campus is Filled with Full-Time Teachers

Bowling Green State University - Main Campus makes above average use of full-time teachers, with 67.0% of instructors teaching full time.

Below Average Reliance on Part-Time Teachers

At Bowling Green State University - Main Campus, only 33.0% of the teaching staff are part-time non-faculty or non-tenure track faculty. This use of adjuncts is low, below the national average of 51.0%, which could be indicative of Bowling Green State University - Main Campus's commitment to building a strong, long-term instructional team.

Colleges often use part-time professors and adjuncts to teach courses, rather than full-time faculty. This hiring practice is primarily a way to save money amid increasingly tight budgets. However, it is a controversial practice with strong views on either side. We encourage you to understand this topic more deeply, and how the colleges you are interested in approach faculty hiring. It's your education and your money on the line. Make sure you know what you are getting for it.

Additional Information

• What is an Adjunct? An adjunct is a teacher that has either no contract or a very short term contract for a single semester or year. These teachers often instruct only a single class or two at a given college and may have teaching or non-teaching jobs elsewhere. The term 'adjunct' can be used very loosely in academia, and many schools classify these instructors differently. To account for this difference, we use the total number of part-time non-faculty and non-tenure track faculty to represent the count of adjuncts for the college or university.

Grad Assistants May Teach Classes

Bowling Green State University - Main Campus has 712 instructional graduate assistants that teach or provide teaching-related duties. These responsibilities could range from entirely teaching lower-level courses themselves, to assisting professors by developing teaching materials, preparing or giving exams and grading student work. We suggest you ask the college to what extent graduate assistants are relied on for instruction, so you know what you are paying for.

Additionally, the school has 399 non-instructional graduate assistants.