Student Evaluations of Teaching Effectiveness: An Instrument to Increase Teaching Quality in Higher Education

Although student evaluations of teaching effectiveness remain a debated issue due to their reliability, validity and potential bias, they have been adapted as a part of quality assurance system in many universities and hold their primacy. Their widespread use is a useful source of data for universities to make personnel decisions; for lecturers to refine their teaching; and for students to make decisions on instructor and course selection. In the present study pre and post survey questionnaires were conducted among 325 students to reveal whether student evaluations of teaching effectiveness increase teaching and learning quality at a university. It was found that student feedback played an increasingly important role in the delivery of high-quality teaching