Student Evaluations Are Biased, but We Can Fix It

As the end of the semester rapidly approaches, you’re going to start getting emails that ask you to fill out course evaluations for your classes. If you’re anything like me, you likely don’t think about evaluations until one of your professors reminds you to fill them out. They have always seemed to be just one more task to worry about during the most stressful time of the semester.

Despite students’ resistance to complete them, course evaluations play a crucial role in higher education — yet their effectiveness is undermined by significant biases and structural flaws.

In the past, I have only ever filled out course evaluations if I felt strongly enough about some aspect of the course. This backfired during my freshman year when I skipped an evaluation, only to have the professor make the final exam mandatory. Had I filled it out, we would’ve reached the 90 percent threshold to make it optional.

Megan Matteoli, a senior marketing student, said she only ever completes the evaluations if they’re offered during class time and that she does not think about the purpose behind them — she just does them for credit. “It’s an easy way to earn points but if I’m not earning points I get kind of annoyed,” she said.

A 2022 report published by the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education surveyed 55 primarily non-tenure track faculty from a public research university in the southeastern U.S. The survey found that only “16 percent found end-of-course evaluations to be very or extremely useful.”

One faculty member expressed that “[evaluations] provide a loose approximation of student perceptions of the course, although the correlation between the positivity or negativity of these assessments and student grades — or perceived physical attractiveness — limits their usefulness.”

The findings from this study are also consistent with literature that suggests that female professors receive harsher evaluations. “Compared to women, male instructors are perceived as more accurate in their teaching, more educated, less sexist, more enthusiastic, competent, organized, easier to understand, prompt in providing feedback and they are less penalized for being tough graders,” an article from Inside Higher Ed. says.

All of these findings become even more important when one takes into consideration what student evaluations are used for. According to the Associated Faculty of MSU Collective Bargaining Agreement for Non-Tenure Track Faculty, student evaluations are used in considerations for title advancement. Essentially, a student evaluation could be a major factor in a professor’s capacity to advance in their career.

So, what does this mean for students? I think the first step, self-evident or not, should be to fill out your course evaluations. They matter way more than you think they do. Attempt to think about your professors simply in terms of the class. Take a step back to recognize if you’re harboring any biases, and attempt to fill out your evaluations as objectively as you can. And, to that end, try to remember that there is a person on the other end of your evaluation — so be kind.

However, the ineffectiveness of course evaluations is not totally the fault of students. While bias is a significant issue that limits the effectiveness of evaluations, it is not the sole issue. Another suggestion from the 2022 report was that evaluations should be given earlier into the course in order to alleviate students venting about failing grades. This, in my experience, is a very real shortcoming of course evaluations. I don’t think it’s one that students should be blamed for. No matter how objective you think you’re being, it’s only natural to be affected by factors like your grade or most recent experience in the class when filling out your evaluation.

Course evaluations serve as a critical mechanism for feedback, but their flaws cannot be ignored. The biases that color these assessments, particularly those affecting female professors, highlight the need for a more balanced and thoughtful approach. Ultimately, to make evaluations a true tool for improvement, both students and faculty must work toward an environment where feedback is constructive, unbiased and genuinely reflective of the course experience. Only then can we ensure that these evaluations fulfill their intended purpose.