The More You Invest in Teachers at University ... the Better the Teaching Quality?

So, if you want to improve teaching quality at university, should you just get more teaching staff? Well let's analyse The Times University Survey 2016, for the link between staff/student ratios and teaching quality [here]:

Well there is virtually no overall change, as an average, by reducing the student-staff ratio. Prof Ian Sommerville proposes that it is the culture of the university that is perhaps one of the most important factors in teaching quality [comment].

So if you're a government funder, and you want to improve teaching quality, should you invest in student services and facilities? Will that improve teaching quality [here]?

Again, this is not proven. In fact there is a negative trend, where an increase in services/facilities spent actually decreases teaching quality. But does the amount of money spent on services/facilities per student actually lead to better the student satisfaction? Generally the answer is ... yes [here]:

So we didn't prove that more teachers does not improve teaching. But does it improve completion rates [here]:

The answer is yes. The higher the student-staff ratio, the lower the completion rates.

Conclusion

So if you want to make students happier, you invest in services. If you want better teaching, you need to look elsewhere, but if you want higher completion rates, then you may need more teachers.

Want to analyse more? Try here.