by our College Data Analytics TeamTake a look at the classes and faculty information below to get a feel for student life at SMU.
On this page you’ll find:
Student to faculty ratio is a common metric used to gauge the number of teaching resources a school provides for its students. With 11 students for every one instructional faculty member, Southern Methodist University ranks among the best colleges when compared to the national average of 15.
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 Southern Methodist University as primarily performing research or public service.
| Total | Full Time | Part Time | Percent Full Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total of Instructional Employees | 1,163 | 788 | 375 | 68% |
| Total of Those With Faculty Status | 1,163 | 788 | 375 | 68% |
| Tenured Faculty | 357 | 357 | - | 100% |
| On Tenure Track | 103 | 103 | - | 100% |
| Not on Tenure Track | 703 | 328 | 375 | 47% |
| Without Faculty Status | - | - | - | - |
| Graduate Assistants | 379 | - | 379 | - |
At Southern Methodist University, 68% of instructors are employed full time, which ranks among the highest in the nation.
At Southern Methodist University, 32% of the teaching staff are part-time non-faculty or non-tenure track faculty. This is a bit below the national average of 51.4%.
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.
Southern Methodist University has 258 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 121 non-instructional graduate assistants.