New Milestone: Faculty Tops 500

More Students Means More Full-Time Teachers

Increasing enrollment on campus has meant the need for more faculty.

Increasing enrollment on campus has meant the need for more faculty.

09/07/2011
By Christine Dunlap

This fall, UMass Lowell reached a new milestone, as the semester began with 503 full-time faculty members, a record for the campus. Overall enrollments have increased by more than 30 percent in the past three years due to improved retention rates and an increased number of incoming students.

The campus now has more than 14,000 students, including undergraduate, graduate and continuing studies levels. The campus goal is to continue to increase overall enrollments of undergraduates and master’s and professional master’s students in areas of demand.

New faculty members have been recruited across disciplines to respond to these enrollment increases. At the same time, the campus is committed to retaining student-friendly classes with the current 14:1 student to faculty ratio and with about half of classes offered containing 20 or fewer students.