Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of Professors Concerning Academic Rules and Relations: Does Sex Matter?

Abstract

A common metric in appraising the classroom and educational experience is student ratings of courses and faculty. Our purpose in this study was to investigate whether the ratings of faculty in a co-educational Middle Eastern university concerning observation of university rules and policy, communication with colleagues, and communication with students differ based on sex—both that of the faculty and that of the student furnishing the ratings. Data were collected from 847 undergraduate students at Kashan University, of whom 626 had complete data. Statistically significant, though small, differences were observed for the main effect of student sex (females>males on following rules) and female faculty were rated more highly than male faculty on following rules and relationships with students. No differences by student sex or faculty sex on relationships with colleagues were noted, nor was there an interaction of student sex and faculty sex on the ratings.