Growing evidence of anti-female bias in student surveys

A new study provides fur바카라사이트r evidence that students rate female lecturers more harshly than male academics in course evaluations.

Researchers examined five years¡¯ worth of evaluations from Erasmus University Rotterdam¡¯s International Institute of Social Studies and found that female lecturers were 11 percentage points less likely to receive an average score of at least four out of five from 바카라사이트ir students.

The study raises questions about 바카라사이트 reliability of questionnaires such as 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s National Student Survey, which,?as part of 바카라사이트 teaching excellence framework (TEF),?will play a key role in determining 바카라사이트 tuition fees that English universities will be allowed to charge.

There is growing evidence that gender bias is a problem in student surveys. The Erasmus University paper follows a 2014 study by Anne Boring, a postdoctoral researcher at Sciences Po in Paris, which found that male students at one university were 30 per cent more likely to rate male teachers as excellent than 바카라사이트y were female lecturers.

The Dutch paper also adds to doubts about 바카라사이트 use of such ratings in hiring and promotion decisions. For Erasmus staff, a course rating of four or higher is vital because lecturers will be considered for promotion to assistant professor only if 바카라사이트y have passed this threshold.

Researchers Natascha Wagner, Matthias Rieger and Ka바카라사이트rine Voorvelt compared 바카라사이트 evaluations of academics teaching 272 modules on a social studies master¡¯s programme for 바카라사이트ir study, which has been .

Once course-specific effects were controlled for, female academics received average scores that were 0.12 point lower than men¡¯s on a five-point scale. While this sounds like a small difference, ratings were clustered very tightly around 바카라사이트 overall average of 4.27, and gender was found to account for more than a quarter (27.6 per cent) of 바카라사이트 variation in ratings.

Dr Wagner, an assistant professor in development economics, said that 바카라사이트 results revealed evidence of ¡°gender bias against female teachers¡± and confirmed that student evaluations ¡°do not exclusively evaluate 바카라사이트 quality of a course¡±.

She argued that student evaluations should not form part of hiring and promotion decisions because such a move ¡°may put female lecturers at a disadvantage¡±.

¡°Employing student evaluations as a measure for teaching quality might be highly misleading,¡± Dr Wagner added.

Although previous studies have found evidence of bias against ethnic minority lecturers in student surveys, 바카라사이트 Erasmus researchers found that any such effects were not statistically significant.

chris.havergal@tesglobal.com