> A professor isn't a school teacher that needs to look after each student individually
There's a line of research that shows that high quality one-on-one instruction gets you up to 2stdev gains in learning performance.
If you can afford to increase the professor to student ratio and make them available for office hours, you probably do see increases in performance. Is it due to better motivation? Seeing an academic up close? Actually better explanations you get from an expert in the subject? Hard to say.
There's a line of research that shows that high quality one-on-one instruction gets you up to 2stdev gains in learning performance.
If you can afford to increase the professor to student ratio and make them available for office hours, you probably do see increases in performance. Is it due to better motivation? Seeing an academic up close? Actually better explanations you get from an expert in the subject? Hard to say.