There has been a documented rise in staff and students in French-speaking higher education between 2005 and 2021, but instead of following the same trajectory, a new report has shown that rising student numbers have massively surpassed the increase in university staff.
The report, published by the Academy of Research and Higher Education (ARES), showed how there has been a 55% increase in the number of French-speaking university students since 2005. but staff numbers have only risen by 26%. Compared to one for 35.8 students in 2005, there is one employee for 44.1 students today.
This phenomenon was also experienced in non-university higher education institutes, where the average number of students per employee increased from 17.9 to 19.3 between 2005 and 2021. In the so-called hautes écoles for example, teaching staff numbers rose by only 7.6%, despite having to teach 24% more students.
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Moreover, other figures from the ARES report indicate that the low number of staff may not be improved anytime soon, with 54% of new professors and teachers having left their profession in their first five years in the job. A further 34% of them left their jobs after only a year in the job.
These revelations have pushed the ARES administrator Laurent Despy to call on "political authorities to use this report as a tool to better steer higher education" onto the right path.
One positive to come out of the report was the increase in gender equality among staff numbers since 2005. The number of women who now work at universities has grown from 17% to 30%.
