Top universities with the best student-to-staff ratio 2020

Data from the Times Higher Education World University Rankings reveal the top universities with the best student-to-staff ratios

February 11 2020

Top universities for best student to staff ratio

A lower student-to-staff ratio can help students to cultivate closer relationships with their lecturers, have quicker access to essay feedback, and get involved in more interactive seminars and discussions.

Times Higher Education has created this table to show which universities have the best student-to-staff ratios in the world as a way to help students work out which universities could be best placed to provide this type of learning environment.

The list has been compiled using data from the latest THE World University Rankings. As part of the rankings, THE collects information on the number of staff and students at each university, and from this we can calculate the student-to-staff ratio. The full methodology of the World University Rankings can be found here. The table below shows the number of students per member of staff for each university.

All the top five universities are specialist medical institutions. As these universities combine practical experience alongside theoretical learning, it may be that they require more staff to support this teaching structure.

It is also the case that many specialist universities have smaller student bodies, with higher numbers of teaching staff and faculty. However, some institutions on this list – such as Johns Hopkins University and Duke University – have large student populations (about 15,000 each), so this isn’t always the case.

Japan dominates the list, with 38 universities featured. The US comes in second with 21 universities. The rest of the top 100 features universities from Russia, Brazil, France, India and China. Noticeably, universities based in the UK are absent from the top 100.

The top five universities with the best student-to-staff ratio

Scroll down to see the full table

=1. Nippon Medical School

Nippon Medical School is a private medical school in Tokyo. It is the oldest private medical university in Japan, having been founded in 1876.

The university has two campuses. Musashisakai is about 40 minutes west of the city centre and is where first-year undergraduate students take courses in basic sciences and liberal arts.

For the second year through to the sixth year, medical training takes place at the Sendagi campus, which is much closer to central Tokyo and nearby to the university hospital. Sendagi is also home to the university’s graduate school and its International Exchange Centre.

=1. Jikei University School of Medicine

Jikei University School of Medicine is a private university in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The word “jikei” means “mercy and love” in Japanese.

With 2,700 beds and 7,500 outpatients a day, Jikei University Hospitals is considered one of the largest educational hospital systems in the country. The university also has an international exchange programme with King’s College London and the University of Leeds.

Jikei has four university hospitals – Katsushika Medical Center, Daisan Hospital in Chofu Komae, the Kashiwa Hospital in Chiba and the Jikei University School of Medicine Triton Clinic in Harumi.

=3. St Marianna University School of Medicine

Founded in 1971, St Marianna University School of Medicine is Japan’s only medical university with a Christian ethos, as it is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church.

In addition to medical studies, the institution offers a degree in comparative religious studies.

The curriculum consists of initial practical training in the first three years and clinical clerkship in the latter three years.

The university is the first in Asia to be approved as a medical centre for the FIFA world soccer association, as the medical provider for the Japan national football team.

Student experience

University of Nebraska Medical Center: learning in the lab and on the ward
Student life at a medical university with a high staff-to-student ratio
A day in the life of a student in France
Studying at Princeton University
Navigating Yale University
A day in the life of a US university student at Vanderbilt University
Caltech: ‘uniquely difficult but a wonderful place to study’

=3. Oregon Health and Science University

Oregon Health and Science University is a public university with a main campus and two hospitals in Portland, Oregon, US. It was founded in 1887.

The institution offers degree programmes in dentistry, medicine and nursing. It is a functioning hospital, simultaneously treating patients, training healthcare professionals and conducting important healthcare research.

Oregon Health and Science University is also one of the largest employers in the state, and has launched many community programmes to improve the health of Oregon’s residents.

The university’s Knight Cancer Institute helped to pioneer medicine through a discovery that identified how to shut down cells that enable cancer to grow without harming healthy ones. The Brain Institute scientists are nationally recognised for discoveries that have led to a better understanding of Alzheimer’s disease.

5. Kansai Medical University

Kansai Medical University is a private medical university located in the city of Moriguchi, near the town of Osaka, Japan. It was founded in 1928, when the Osaka Women’s Medical College was established, but it wasn’t chartered until 1947. It became co-educational in 1954 and adopted its current name.

The university is affiliated with four hospitals: the KMU Kori Hospital, KMU Medical Centre, KMU University Hospital and Kansai Medical University Temmabashi General Clinic.

It also offers a number of graduate programmes across many areas including stem cell pathology, psychosomatic medicine, radiology, paediatrics and dermatology.

The top 100 universities with the best student-to-staff ratio

Student- to-staff ratio rank 2020	Student- to-staff ratio rank 2019	University	Country/region	Number of students per one member of staff
=1	=44	Nippon Medical School	Japan	0.9
=1	1	Jikei University School of Medicine	Japan	0.9
=3	NR	St Marianna University School of Medicine	Japan	1.0
=3	2	Oregon Health and Science University	United States	1.0
5	3	Kansai Medical University	Japan	1.1
6	=5	Saitama Medical University	Japan	1.5
7	=5	Tokyo Medical University	Japan	1.6
=8	7	Hyogo College of Medicine	Japan	2.0
=8	4	Rush University	United States	2.0
10	8	Showa University	Japan	2.1
11	9	University of Nebraska Medical Center	United States	2.3
12	NR	University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan	Japan	2.6
13	NR	Osaka Medical College	Japan	2.7
14	10	Aichi Medical University	Japan	2.8
15	=11	Vanderbilt University	United States	3.0
16	NR	Shiga University of Medical Science	Japan	3.1
17	=11	Fujita Health University	Japan	3.2
=18	13	Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU)	Japan	3.3
=18	=15	Nara Medical University	Japan	3.3
20	NR	Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine	Japan	3.4
21	14	Sapporo Medical University	Japan	3.5
=22	=18	Hamamatsu University School of Medicine	Japan	3.8
=22	=18	Juntendo University	Japan	3.8
=24	21	Wake Forest University	United States	4.0
=24	=23	Emory University	United States	4.0
26	=23	University of Rochester	United States	4.2
=27	NR	Medical University of Innsbruck	Austria	4.3
=27	=25	University of Copenhagen	Denmark	4.3
=27	NR	Acıbadem University	Turkey	4.3
=27	=25	Duke University	United States	4.3
=31	=29	Johns Hopkins University	United States	4.5
=31	17	Yokohama City University	Japan	4.5
=31	=25	Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences	Sweden	4.5
34	NR	State University of Santa Cruz	Brazil	4.7
35	20	Bauman Moscow State Technical University	Russian Federation	4.8
36	32	National Yang-Ming University	Taiwan	5.1
37	=29	L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University	Kazakhstan	5.3
=38	33	Yale University	United States	5.4
=38	34	Kitasato University	Japan	5.4
=40	NR	Télécom Paris	France	5.6
=40	NR	Ufa State Aviation Technical University	Russian Federation	5.6
=40	=29	Al-Farabi Kazakh National University	Kazakhstan	5.6
=43	=42	University of Chicago	United States	5.7
=43	37	École Polytechnique	France	5.7
=45	41	Columbia University	United States	5.8
=45	=39	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States	5.8
47	=42	University of Leoben	Austria	5.9
48	=48	Novosibirsk State University	Russian Federation	6.2
=49	NR	University of Technology, Iraq	Iraq	6.3
=49	38	Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University	Russian Federation	6.3
=49	=48	University of Yamanashi	Japan	6.3
=49	=39	University of Miami	United States	6.3
53	=51	California Institute of Technology	United States	6.4
54	=48	University of Pennsylvania	United States	6.5
=55	=51	Technical University of Denmark	Denmark	6.6
=55	=51	Southern Medical University	China	6.6
=57	=54	Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa	Italy	6.8
=57	=44	King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals	Saudi Arabia	6.8
=57	61	Capital Medical University	China	6.8
=60	=25	King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences	Saudi Arabia	6.9
=60	=56	Norwegian University of Life Sciences	Norway	6.9
=60	=62	Tehran University of Medical Sciences	Iran	6.9
63	=56	Nagasaki University	Japan	7.0
=64	=62	Lomonosov Moscow State University	Russian Federation	7.3
=64	NR	Kurume University	Japan	7.3
=64	70	Stanford University	United States	7.3
=67	=64	Saint Petersburg State University	Russian Federation	7.4
=67	NR	Sultan Qaboos University	Oman	7.4
=67	=78	Osaka University	Japan	7.4
=70	60	Pontifical Catholic University of Peru	Peru	7.5
=70	=64	Washington University in St Louis	United States	7.5
=70	NR	Howard University	United States	7.5
=70	=91	Tottori University	Japan	7.5
=74	=71	Nagoya City University	Japan	7.6
=74	=64	Tamil Nadu Agricultural University	India	7.6
=74	NR	Indian Institute of Technology Ropar	India	7.6
=74	=80	Gifu University	Japan	7.6
=74	=76	Kumamoto University	Japan	7.6
=74	=80	Shimane University	Japan	7.6
=80	=54	Dartmouth College	United States	7.7
=80	NR	Federal Rural University of the Semi-Arid Region	Brazil	7.7
=80	=64	Gunma University	Japan	7.7
=80	NR	University of Science and Technology of China	China	7.7
=80	=71	Tokyo Institute of Technology	Japan	7.7
=85	=86	Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod	Russian Federation	7.9
=85	=86	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia	7.9
=85	=97	University of Miyazaki	Japan	7.9
=85	=80	Niigata University	Japan	7.9
=89	=80	Okayama University	Japan	8.0
=89	NR	University of Malaya	Malaysia	8.0
=91	NR	King Khalid University	Saudi Arabia	8.1
=91	=80	Hokkaido University	Japan	8.1
=91	NR	École des Mines de Saint-Étienne	France	8.1
=91	=74	National University of Sciences and Technology	Pakistan	8.1
=91	=91	Princeton University	United States	8.1
=91	=91	Kochi University	Japan	8.1
=91	=80	Medical University of Vienna	Austria	8.1
=98	NR	Sechenov University	Russian Federation	8.2
=98	36	Tohoku University	Japan	8.2
=98	=86	IMT Atlantique	France	8.2