Ruscio et al. (Ruscio, Seaman, D'Oriano, Stremlo, & Mahalchik, this issue) write of a thing with which scientists and scholars are all too familiar, the assessment of published research and of its authors. The author was startled to discover how little the agenda of the paper seems to engage with factors one relies on for salary and promotion…

This paper presents the findings of a national survey of student satisfaction with undergraduate teaching in a sample of universities and colleges in China. The results show that while a high proportion of academic staff participates in undergraduate teaching, levels of student satisfaction are low. The lowest levels of student satisfaction are…

Any university that is seriously committed to equity must value faculty contributions to diversity made through teaching, research, and service. If diversity is truly part of the core academic mission, it should be included in the criteria used to evaluate and reward faculty achievement. Toward this end, the faculty of the University of…

The USA has served as a beacon of hope for thousands of foreign students and academics with its diverse and superior opportunities created by a system of meritocracy unparalleled in the world. In keeping with other industries, academia is increasingly becoming a global village and foreign-born professors constitute a large proportion of university…

Peer review of teaching (PRT) depicts as many different definitions, processes, rationale and underpinning values as there are participating individuals. This paper reports the activities of one academic department who were forced to address the issues of perceived clarity, value and ownership when faced with an unexpectedly low completion rate in…

This study explores the thought processes college students use when answering survey questions on standardized course/faculty evaluations. Thought processes are categorized as: System One or System Two, based on the framework developed by Kahneman (2003) and Stanovich and West (2000). System One processes are typically hurried, superficial,…

Several experts in the area of postsecondary student evaluations of courses have concluded that they are stable or reliable measures as well as being measures that provide ways of making valid inferences regarding teacher effectiveness. Often these experts have offered these conclusions without supporting evidence. Surprisingly, a thorough review…

Expectations and the way they are communicated can influence employees' motivation and performance. Previous research has demonstrated individual effects of workplace climate and individual differences on faculty productivity. The present study focused on the characteristics of institutional performance standards, evaluation processes and…

With the proliferation of computer networks and the increased use of Internet-based applications, many forms of social interactions now take place in an on-line context through "Computer-Mediated Communication" (CMC). Many universities are now reaping the benefits of using CMC applications to collect data on student evaluations of…

This article presents findings from a case study related to the risks associated with the choice of traditional, tenure track faculty to teach online. Education offered at a distance via the World Wide Web is on the rise; so too is the demand for university faculty members who will teach those courses. While traditional academic and professional…

In spousal hires, university administrators too often fail to make the important distinction between partners who most likely would not have been hired under normal circumstances and, thus, could be a burden on an institution, and those who would be an attractive hire under any circumstances. One is a "trailing" spouse in need of "an…

The present study sought to examine the justification of faculty claims regarding bias in students' assessments of faculty performance that stem from external factors which do not include the quality of their teaching. Specifically, we sought to examine the hypothesis that there is a correlation between lecturer ranking and grades given by…

We examined web-based ratings and open-ended comments of teaching-award winners (n = 120) and research-award winners (n = 119) to determine if teaching-award winners received more favourable ratings and comments on RateMyProfessors.com. As predicted, students rated teaching-award winners higher than research-award winners on measures of teaching…

As part of its Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded Future of Scholarly Communication Project, the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) has hosted two meetings to explore how peer review relates to scholarly communication and academic values. In preparation for an April 2010 workshop, four working papers were developed and circulated. They…

The main purpose of this research is to examine the effectiveness of Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) from a sample of university teachers' and students' view. The study adopts exploratory descriptive design. Participants of this research were 300 teachers and 600 graduate students from 3 Iranian higher education institutions. A 30-item format…