If that sleepyhead Southern baptist Rip (Bubba) Van Winkle dozed off around 1980 and was just now rousing himself from his slumber, he would be surprised at the situation of our beloved denomination’s six seminaries.
Here are a few items from the book of reports this year.
Total SBC Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) both funded and unfunded
1. Southern 2294
2. New Orleans. 1309
3. Southeastern. 1278
4. Southwestern. 1249
5. Midwestern. 931
6. Gateway. 490
Southwestern, which used to be the world’s largest seminary is now the SBC’s fourth largest, but there are different ways to measure all this.
A few other notes:
- There are more undergraduate degrees given now than graduate degrees (although I don’t think PhDs are included in this number). Seminaries with their undergrad programs have long competed with state convention schools, to the latter’s chagrin. Now, many state schools offer MDiv’s in competition with seminaries. The whole system runs on enrollment numbers and concomitant tuition and funding rather that any basis that would eliminate duplication and enhance efficiencies.
- Southern and Midwestern have grown in recent years. The other four have declined. Measure revenue and you get a different look. Southwestern has an enormous amount of private funding.
- Overall student count is down a bit for the six combined. Still, I assume we don’t have enough viable churches for all the folks we are educating.
While this is interesting (at least to one retired pastor in the Baptist hinterlands), one probably shouldn’t look for much change. The SBC seminary system is the most politically untouchable of all our entities. Imagine the rancor created over proposing the merging of some or trying to create efficiencies between states and the seminaries. Circle the wagons.
Like most legacy organizations, if you designed it today it wouldn’t look like what we have. Institutional inertia reigneth forever and forever…or at least until money dries up. But, we have a good system, though imperfect, for putting educated clergy in our churches.
Full time equivalence is a metric that accrediting associations use. It divides the total number of semesters hours completed at a seminary by twelve, assuming that twelve semester hours per semester is a normal full load for a student. Seminaries usually report their “head count.” This is the total number of persons who have taken at least one course during the year. Thus, Southern Seminary reports a head count of more than 4,000, while its FTE is about half that. I recall a faculty meeting at Southern Seminary in which Dr. Al Mohler, the president, lamented the fact that Southern… Read more »
Mark, I am unsure what the accrediting association uses for their FTE. However, SBTS uses 9 hours as full-time for a Master’s student (which I would assume is pretty standard for the other seminaries). This is in comparison to a traditional university’s Master’s program which would consider 6 hours to be full time. I would also not be shocked to find that in general there are more PhD graduates than jobs available worldwide. Some pursue the PhD just an avenue to further education for the local church context, but I have run into quite a few people at the school… Read more »
I don’t see a fundamental issue with FTEs being the standard for funding. Student involvement with the school is roughly equal to the number of credit hours taken. Perhaps the formula can be adjusted but at the end of the day the budget is based on how many classes are being offered and taught, not simply how many students are in the system.
I have tons of friends in the DFW area that have gone to and plan on going to Midwestern. It seems to be exploding right now! I don’t know what they’re doing, but they must be doing something right.
I haven’t gotten to shake William Thornton’s hand yet, but I’m thankful for him holding the fort down here during the PC.
Did you shake his hand tonight?
I did.
William’s report needs some explanation. The SBC FTE metric offers virtually no credit for online students and very little credit for extension center students. The truth is my last year, 2015/16, on the NOBTS board we had a little over 3900 students. Even using the FTE formula that penalizes our seminaries for excelling in off campus students, the last information I was given five of the SBC seminaries were in the 10 largest seminaries in America, SBTS – 2, SWBTS – 3, SEBTS – 5, NOBTS – 8, MBTS – 10.
The data are virtually impenetrable. You can find what I used and more in the book of reports. There are several ways to measure. No question mbts and sbts have grown.
Someone once explained the cp seminary funding formula here. seems like it wasn’t as simple as fte numbers. FTE seems like a good way to compare to me.
The six SBC seminaries receive 21% of the SBC budget. That money is divided among the seminaries according to a formula. I’ve heard an explanation of it, but I don’t remember the details. For sure it is complicated. The main factor is FTE. Yes, the number of on-campus students is given heavier weight. Some, like the writer above, believe that works against New Orleans Seminary. Midwestern Seminary is enjoying a surge in enrollment. Gateway Seminary (formerly Golden Gate) is not the largest, but it has done great work in assisting with SBC home mission work in the West.
Mark, I believe the FTE formula not only punishes NOBTS but I also believe it punishes MBTS, GBTS, and SEBTS. The two most influential seminary presidents in the SBC are at Southern and Southwestern, which coincidently have the largest on campus number of students. When Southern and Southwestern’s online enrollment increases to a certain # the FTE formula the SBC uses will change. As of now there is no consideration for a seminary’s online students when the FTE’s are figured and the 21% is divided up.
Dean, I agree with you that the current seminary funding formula reflects a by-gone age, rather than current reality (great popularity of online education).
William, does the FTE enrollment include undergraduate students? If so, can you give the number of undergraduate students at each seminary? I have looked at the Book of Reports also but was not sure of those two items.