Teaching and research are the two UIT (university or institute of technology) areas with the highest costs. The amount and distribution of these costs varies greatly depending on the field of study. Not every higher education institution offers all fields of study and for this reason, the costs are shown per student/per field of study. UIT costs totalled CHF 9 billion.
The costs incurred for teaching staff in basic education (BE) per student (cost indicator 1) vary greatly between fields of study. Whereas the BE for a law student amounted to more than CHF 9 500 in 2022, the costs for a dentistry student were just above CHF 50 000. If research costs (cost indicator 2) are also added to the costs of actual teaching, the difference between the two fields of study becomes even greater. The differences are due on the one hand to differing costs for the research infrastructure and on the other to different student-teacher ratios.
This indicator shows the influence of the student-teacher ratio on the average costs per student in 2022. To calculate the cost indicator (cost indicator 1), the costs of basic education (BE) per student are applied. The student-teacher ratio (student-teacher ratio 2) is based on students in BE in relation to academic staff in BE (professors, other lecturers and research assistants in full-time equivalents). Differences in the student-teacher ratio of the individual fields of study are the result of varying teaching methods (lectures, practical courses or laboratory courses) and of the number of students.
In the graph, the change in costs (in CHF) per student (in basic education) is shown against the student-teacher ratio (academic staff for basic education in FTE) between 2013 and 2022. The light blue dot shows the figure for the field of study in 2013 and the dark blue dot the figure in 2022. By combining this with the student-teacher ratios at the UIT, it can be shown that the decrease in costs per student is largely accompanied by an increase in the number of students per teacher in FTE.
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