The evidence is in: liberal arts faculty connect better with their students

Almost two decades ago, I had the pleasure of teaching at New York University while finishing my PhD. I am grateful that, after all these years, I remain in contact with a number of my students from that time – especially as I realise that such ongoing connections are rare at large institutions.

I enjoyed being more than a fairly anonymous, twice-a-week lecturer. I enjoyed helping guide my students along their academic and post-collegiate journeys. But it is hard to forget the shocked look that I received when I mentioned to a faculty member that I took my class bowling one evening after reading Robert Putnam’s classic work, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. The professor told me that spending leisure time with students was not only unusual but also signalled that I was not a serious scholar.

Since then, I have served as a professor at Sarah Lawrence College, a small liberal arts college in New York, where the job involves lots of close work with students. Many liberal arts colleges promote themselves as faculty-run and teaching-centred, more personal and dynamic than typical universities. And while liberal arts administrators may not be as responsive as they could be to students’ needs, my experience is that liberal arts faculty are responsive.

But I have long wondered if this perception is true more widely. New data from College Pulse’s Students Views on Faculty survey suggests that it is. Roughly 2,000 current students at 120 schools, ranging from national liberal arts institutions to community colleges and national and local universities, were explicitly asked how well they believe their professors and instructors build relationships with them. Overall, 60 per cent reported that their professors are excellent or good at building relationships, while just 13 per cent actively disagree.

That figure rises to 72 per cent at liberal arts schools and drops 15 points to 57 per cent at universities. At community colleges, the figure sits at 64 per cent but these schools are less relevant in terms of student choice because while they often transform the lives of their students, they do not compete with nationally focused schools for enrolments.

Breaking down the figures a bit further, at the top 25 universities in the US News rankings, 54 per cent of students rate their faculty as good or excellent at connecting with students. That figure climbs to 63 per cent at universities ranked 26 through 100, but falls back to 55 per cent at schools in the 100+ range, suggesting that even universities with lower reputational status regard connecting with students as a lower priority than liberal arts colleges do.

Regional universities score the highest here, with 68 per cent of their students believing that faculty connect well with them. This may be due to the fact that research is a much smaller focus at these schools, many of whose faculty buy into the mission of transforming lives through education and, thus, want to deeply connect with students.

Turning to liberal arts colleges, 68 per cent of students at top-25 schools say they have a good or excellent connections with their professors. At colleges in the 25-100 range, that figure shoots up to an extraordinary 93 per cent, perhaps because while scholarship remains valued at lower-ranked liberal arts schools, the lessening of research as a priority, alongside support for student growth, creates a culture of teaching and engagement in the classroom – and, thereby, of intimacy.

Regrettably, however, the average is brought back down to Earth by the fact that just 54 per cent of students at regional liberal arts schools believe that their professors connect strongly with them. This could be due to the fact that lower resource levels may mean there is much less support (and, therefore, incentive) for faculty to connect with students. Either way, when choosing between liberal arts colleges and universities, it is clear that would-be students should choose their schools carefully.

If they do choose a liberal arts college with strong faculty-student connections, what are the benefits? It is true that we need more research on exactly how staff roles contribute to higher learning. But the evidence we have – as well as personal experience – suggests there are many benefits, from promoting better in-class performance to facilitating mentorship and advocacy for students.

Survey work has shown that when college graduates have a professor who cares for them as a person, they are 1.9 times more likely to be engaged at work and 1.7 times more likely to report strong well-being. Moreover, student-faculty interactions that are conducive to students’ learning have been instrumental in retention and graduation efforts, notably among students from under-represented and underprivileged backgrounds.

Close bonds with students also have benefits for faculty. As well as the inherent pleasure they bring, the insights they give me into generational views and attitudes have helped me better understand political change, providing endless insights relevant to my own research.

While it is true that university professors can and do form real relationships with their students, we now have the evidence to proclaim that connectivity at liberal arts colleges is far deeper. Sure, there are some trade-offs of scale and scope at liberal arts colleges. But what students gain is the real value of truly knowing and working with their professors.

Samuel J. Abrams is professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.