Student Evaluations In Promotion And Tenure

Tenure and promotion applications are most often concerned with two main criteria: scholarship and teaching effectiveness. This then begs the question of how something as subjective as "teaching effectiveness" can be accurately assessed. Student evaluation surveys have long been administered by post-secondary education institutions across Canada and are often considered as part of the assessment of an academic's teaching. However, the use of student evaluation surveys was readily challenged in a recent arbitration between Ryerson University and its Faculty Association. That award resulted in Ryerson losing the ability to use student evaluations as evidence of a professor's effectiveness (or lack thereof) in the classroom.