Perceptions of Male and Female Lecturers at an American Style University in Nigeria

This quantitative study examines the data collected from end of year evaluations completed by students on their lecturers at an American style university in Nigeria in three key areas: course, instructor and student. The lecturers teach in different schools (Business & Entrepreneurship, Arts and Sciences, and Information Technology & Communications) and are from various countries and have differing educational and training backgrounds. This study delineates the data into two main groups: male and female lecturers. Literature suggests that women tend to be rated lower than their male counterparts due to a number of influencing factors such as stereotyping, contrast effect and selective perception which all contribute to bias exhibited by the students. In this paper we review these forms of bias as a complex set of expectations that students use to make their judgment. Despite the complexities of perception, the researchers offer an insight to the common errors of judgment that students make when they evaluate their male and female lecturers. Finally, we challenge the factors that affect bias in student perceptions when evaluating gender specific roles at a university which may distort and mislead results.