The evaluation of university professors: a look from the students

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to analyze the perception that students have of the professor evaluation system in their universities. Although in most universities in the Dominican Republic the evaluation is done by coordinators, professors and students, in this study the situation is investigated based on the results analyzed in the opinions of 347 students from different disciplines of the Education career of seven higher education institutions in this country. Thus, a questionnaire of open ended and closed ended questions is applied, which makes it possible to verify the level of satisfaction that these actors have in the professor evaluation process. The participating population is selected by means of a non-probabilistic, incidental casual method, directly choosing the participants of the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth semesters. The results indicate that students consider it of great value to be taken into account in the evaluation process of their professors, who appreciate the level of reliability of the application of the evaluation instrument; but that the evaluation could be improved by taking into account other components that do not appear in it and integrating open-ended questions, which allow them to express their opinions more accurately. The results are relevant for the design of a new professor evaluation system.