Student evaluations and the impact on academic mental health

In recent years, researchers have demonstrated that student evaluations of courses and teaching are prejudiced against all academics, but mostly towards women and those from marginalized backgrounds. At the same time, studies have demonstrated that abusive student comments in evaluations are increasing, with the most extreme abuse targeted at women and marginalized academics. Yet, at the end of each teaching period, 16,000 institutions globally continue to collect this data and use it to inform hiring, promotion, and end-of-employment decisions. In this chapter, we examine the mental health consequences for academics who are subjected to prejudiced data, and survey data that punishes all academics, but mostly those who are not white, male, middle-class, heterosexual, cisgendered, and able-bodied. In this chapter, we argue that a clear duty of care is being breached by universities who allow their academics to continue being exposed to processes that result in wellbeing and mental health issues.