Over the years, the student population at universities in Flanders has shown a consistent upward trend (Figure 1). Since 2014, the number of students has grown by an average of 15 percent, reflecting the increasing accessibility and popularity of higher education. Similarly, there has been growth in the number of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, with increases of 18 percent and 29 percent, respectively. This surge has been largely driven by government initiatives aimed at strengthening the knowledge economy [1]. The number of professors has also risen, though at a more modest rate of 10 percent.
Figure 1: Fold change of the number of students, PhD students, Post-docs, and Professors (using Full Time Equivalent for PhD students, Post-docs, and Professors) since 2014. Student data is taken from Dataloep [2], while the other data is taken from the VLIR personnel statistics [3].
With the influx of students and researchers, the demand for supervision has naturally increased. However, our analysis reveals that the supervision load for professors has remained relatively stable over time (Figure 2A). On average over all disciplines, each professor in Flanders is responsible for overseeing 42 students, 3 PhD students, and 1 postdoctoral researcher. This supervisory task is significantly greater than at many other institutions in other countries. In Europe, the average number of students per teacher in higher education varies widely, ranging from 9 in Norway to 21 in the Czech Republic [4]. Belgium ranks near the bottom with a ratio of 20. This figure differs from the 42 cited earlier because the European study includes both teaching assistants and professors. In the United States, the student-to-faculty ratio shows even greater variation. Smaller state universities have around 40 students per faculty member, whereas top-ranked institutions like Caltech and MIT boast ratios as low as 3 [5].
Figure 2: Average number of supervised students, PhD students and post-docs per professors (using Full Time Equivalent for PhD students, Post-docs, and Professors) since 2014. Student data is taken from Dataloep [2], while the other data is taken from the VLIR personnel statistics [3].
Although supervising 40 students per professor is a substantial task, the growing number of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers offers opportunities to distribute the load. If these researchers contribute to supervision, the per-professor load drops to about 10 (Figure 2B). Likewise, postdocs can play a crucial role in co-supervising PhD students. Interestingly, these reduced, shared loads have also remained relatively constant over time. It is important to highlight that these figures represent averages and do not capture the variations across different disciplines or the disparities in research group sizes.
Despite the apparent stability in these figures, many of our colleagues report feeling overwhelmed and believe that their workload has increased significantly in the past decade. This perception seems at odds with the data and could be attributed to various factors: increased administrative duties, higher expectations for supervision, professional development pressures, more meetings and online presence, relentless grant applications with low success rates, and the expectation of engaging in outreach activities [6,7].
Based on the figures mentioned above, we can conclude that the additional (subjective) workload of professors over time is not so much due to an increase in time spent supervising the larger group of students and researchers, but perhaps due to the other (administrative) tasks that are increasingly expected of professors.
Sophie De Buyl
Young Academy 2020-2026
University of Brussels
Lars De Laet
Young Academy 2019-2025
University of Brussels
Lendert Gelens
Young Academy 2018-2024
KU Leuven
[1] KVAB standpunt: Doctorate holders are shaping future Flanders
[2] Dataloep: see Dataloep webpage and Academic Compass.
[3] VLIR personnel statistics, see VLIR webpage and Academic Compass.
[4] See Figure 04.04 here, based on the OECD’s annual education at a glance (note that these data are from 2011).
[5] Article US News, Jan 31 2023, 16 colleges with the lowest student-faculty ratios.
[6] Verbeylen et al., Taakbelasting en taakinvulling van het ZAP aan de Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Onderzoeksrapport 2016.
[7] Bentley, P.J., Kyvik, S. Academic work from a comparative perspective: a survey of faculty working time across 13 countries. High Educ 63, 529–547 (2012).
