Faculty
by Baerbel Eckelmann
Faculty Staff
Total number of academic faculty staff who are responsible for planning, directing and undertaking teaching only, research only or both teaching and research.
Please include: vice-chancellors, deputy vice-chancellors, principals, professors, heads of school, associate professors, assistant professors, principal lecturers, tutors or postdoctoral researchers.
Please exclude: research assistants*, PhD students who contribute to teaching, hospital residents and exchange scholars or visiting faculty staff who are members of another university.
* The important distinction for us is that staff counted as ‘research only’ should be academically involved in that research and should be likely to publish research outputs. A research assistant, in our understanding, is any individual who is not conducting their own research and is therefore not likely to publish research outputs. Said individual is (only) involved in research in terms of operational execution, such as a lab technician or equipment operator.
International Faculty Staff
Number of academic faculty staff who are of foreign nationality. The term ‘international’ is hereby determined by citizenship.
For EU countries, this includes all foreign nationals, even if from another EU state.
In Hong Kong, this includes professors from Mainland China.
Inclusion and exclusion mirrors those for academic faculty staff.
In case of dual citizenship, the ‘deciding’ criteria should be ‘citizenship obtained through birth’, basically first passport obtained.
Students – Undergraduate
by Baerbel Eckelmann
Undergraduate Students
Number of students pursuing a Bachelor’s level or equivalent degree. This excludes certificates/diplomas and associate’s degrees.
Undergraduate International Students
Number of undergraduate students who are foreign nationals. The term ‘international’ is hereby determined by citizenship.
For EU countries, this includes all foreign nationals, even nationals of other EU states.
In Hong Kong, this includes students from Mainland China.
In case of dual citizenship, the ‘deciding’ criteria should be ‘citizenship obtained through birth’, basically first passport obtained.
Please exclude all exchange students.
As for language students, if the language students take up a particular language course that is outlined as ‘undergraduate degree program’ they should be included under ‘international undergraduate students’.
Language students who take part in a course not contributing to a degree qualification should be counted under ‘Total International Students’.
Students – Graduate / Postgraduate
by Baerbel Eckelmann
This category draws together statistics pertaining to the graduate / postgraduate student body.
Graduate / Postgraduate Students
Students pursuing a higher-level degree (Master and Doctorate), including both taught and research postgraduates (e.g. PhD students)
Graduate and postgraduate are synonyms to embrace all students pursuing Masters or Doctoral programs. The term graduate is more broadly used in US institutions and postgraduate in British and European institutions.
Graduate / Postgraduate International Students
Number of graduate / postgraduate students who are foreign nationals. The term ‘international’ is hereby determined by citizenship.
For EU countries, this includes all foreign nationals, even nationals of other EU states.
In Hong Kong, this includes students from Mainland China.
In case of dual citizenship, the ‘deciding’ criteria should be ‘citizenship obtained through birth’, basically first passport obtained.
Please exclude all exchange students.
As for language students, if they take up a particular language course that is outlined as ‘graduate/postgraduate degree program’, they should be included under ‘international graduate/postgraduate students’.
Language students who take part in a course not contributing to a degree qualification should be counted under ‘Total International Students’.
Students – Overall
by Baerbel Eckelmann
The data in this category is only required if the institution is unable to submit separate data for undergraduate and graduate aspects of their institution.
Students
Total number of students. However, where possible, the institution is ask to only include students pursuing degree level programs or higher.
International Students
Number of students who are foreign nationals. The term ‘international’ is hereby determined by citizenship. For EU countries, this includes all foreign nationals, even nationals of other EU states. In Hong Kong, this includes students from Mainland China.
In case of dual citizenship, the ‘deciding’ criteria should be ‘citizenship obtained through birth’, basically first passport obtained.
Research Assistant
by Baerbel Eckelmann
A research assistant, in our understanding, is any individual who is not conducting her/his own research and is therefore not likely to publish research outputs. Said individual is (only) involved in research in terms of operational execution, such as a lab technician or equipment operator.
Part Time
The definition of part time usually comes down to credit load.
Look at it this way – if a full time degree program takes x number of years, and is worth y “credits” (some universities actually use this terminology but it doesn’t make a difference if they don’t) then the number of credits per year representing a full time program is y/x. A full time student should therefore be studying for y/x credits in any year to be considered full time. If there are compulsory internships or if credits are available for work experience then these contribute to the credit load. If a student arbitrarily takes a break for any reason, including self-imposed work experience then that would not contribute to the credit load.
For example, at University X students have to take 120 credits a year for 3 years – total credits amounting to 360. If they were part time they might have been doing 60 credits per year for 6 years.
At a university or school that doesn’t operate a credit or module system we can say that the whole degree equates to 1 credit. If the program typically takes 3 years to complete on a full time basis, the credit load should be 1/3. Part time students will have a lower credit load as they are taking longer to complete the program – perhaps it would be 1/5 or 1/6.
Perhaps a simpler way to look at is in terms of velocity. If a given student works at their current commitment will they qualify in the typical time period allotted to a full time program (assuming no fails or retakes)? If so, they are a full time student, if not they are part time.
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