A Survey Of Student Perspectives Toward Faculty Evaluations

Abstract

This study was designed to help faculty and administrators weigh the value of using student ratings of professors’ teaching effectiveness and to determine factors that may affect those ratings.  For this study, conducted at a Midwestern AACSB accredited School of Business, 163 students (23% of the business majors) were surveyed to determine their perceptions concerning student ratings of faculty. Although 100% of the students surveyed believed they were honest in their evaluations, only 33% of them believed other students were honest. International students tended to give higher evaluations in math-related classes than U.S. students.  Students tended to give higher evaluations to professors who used humor and to professors they liked. They did not give higher evaluations to male professors or ones under 55 years of age. The difficulty of the class did not impact students’ ratings of faculty.