‘Accent training’ remark has academics on edge as uni asks students to grade teachers

Last week, University of Sydney academics were called to a meeting at 9.30am on Wednesday, where it was revealed the institution would pilot a new student evaluation system this semester.

Deputy vice chancellor (education) Professor Joanne Wright told staff from the school of social and political sciences that the new system would ask students about their views on teaching quality, according to those present at the meeting.

One academic asked how the university would handle the fact that female academics, staff members with accents, or those of a different nationality were more likely to be marked down by students.

“They said accent training would be provided … [They] also said no one is going to be sacked for having an accent,” the academic, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.

A university spokeswoman said there was no plan to introduce accent training but said the pilot set to start this semester would include students being asked about their experience of teachers and teaching.

“There is no plan to introduce ‘accent training’ – in response to a question, it was suggested as a possible hypothetical option if feedback from our students shows accents are creating barriers to learning, as it’s vital students can understand their lessons and teachers,” she said.

Sydney University National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) branch president Dr Peter Chen expressed concern that discussion of academics’ accents opened the door to unfair and unwarranted criticism by students.

“After this meeting, the NTEU branch has received fairly negative feedback from staff, who are concerned specific groups will be subjected to pressure to undertake this training. And there are concerns that would be highly racialised.

“Being able to be your authentic self in the workplace is fundamental to human dignity … Is it going to be a western Sydney accent? An Aboriginal accent? They’re effectively saying students can nominate concerns about a specific person’s accent.”

He also noted a student’s experience of teaching quality went beyond the remit of individual academics teaching a course, such as the number of resources allocated to teach a course.

“Twenty-five years ago I was teaching 12 people in a tutorial. Now it is 30-plus. Those things do constrain the class experience,” he said.

The refresh of student feedback surveys comes as universities across the country grapple with how to lift student satisfaction rates, which plummeted to their lowest levels in 12 years after the pandemic meant students had to learn remotely.

The Sydney University pilot survey will run at the end of this semester, and a larger pilot is planned for next year.

“This semester we’re piloting student evaluations to help us better understand their experiences of our teaching. We’ll carefully consider the feedback we receive and enhancements we might make, and also mitigate for any potential biases as required,” a spokeswoman said.

Students will be asked five quantitative questions about teaching and an open-text question as part of the survey, with staff to monitor student responses to ensure they are respectful, actionable and provide a context for the interpretation of data.

Sydney University professor of international relations Laura Shepherd, who has researched bias in student evaluations, said women and cultural minorities were disproportionately marked down.

“The quantitative study shows gender and cultural effects have a negative impact across all faculties and subjects,” she said.

“The other finding we would stand by, which is common to the majority of the literature, is that student evaluations don’t actually evaluate quality, they are measures of popularity, and it is very gendered.

“Female-identified teachers are required to be nice, whereas male teachers tend to be commended if they are lively and engaging. Women were asked to be less uptight and smile more, which obviously has nothing to do with the quality of teaching.”

She also said there were numerous factors apart from the teacher that impacted the experience of students, such as tutorial size; reducing the size of tutorials is needed so tutors can have meaningful relationships with students.

“There are so many structural drivers of positive student experience and I know from personal experience that many of these are beyond the control of any individual instructor.”

Data shows smaller, private and regional universities dominate the most highly ranked institutions in terms of student satisfaction.

Research-intensive institutions, including UNSW, the University of Sydney, Monash and Melbourne universities, are all ranked in the bottom six of the nation’s 42 universities, according to the latest available data.

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