We prefer male lecturers to female ones

We prefer being taught by men because they are more animated and fit an academic stereotype.

While we rate women for their ability to prepare for a class, we like men to teach us because they can lead the class and keep us interested – according to new research.

And male lecturers are 30 per cent more likely to get an excellent rating – but only from boys in their class.

This is despite evidence showing students perform equally well under both male and female lecturers.

The report – by Dr Anne Boring – said: “Male students are 30 per cent more likely to rate male teachers’ overall satisfaction scores as excellent than when evaluating female teachers.

“Students perform equally well on final exams, whether the teacher was a man or a woman.”

Dr Boring, a postdoctoral researcher at L’Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, compiled the report after surveying 4,423 undergraduates.

Male lecturers receive better feedback because they fit the academic stereotype and for their ability to lead a class and because they are more animated.

The report added: “Male teachers tend to obtain more favourable ratings by both male and female students in less time-consuming dimensions of teaching, such as quality of animation and class leadership skills.”

Female lecturers received a higher mark from students for “preparation and organisation of course materials, the quality of instructional materials, and the clarity of assessment criteria” – all tasks Boring said take more time and happen outside the classroom.

Boring complained of a gender bias in universities because student feedback on evaluation forms is given too much importance when evaluating lecturers.

She said: “Universities continue to use this tool in a way that may hurt women (and probably other minorities as well, and men who do not correspond to students’ expectations of gender stereotypes) in their academic careers.”