Quality of Academic Staff in Ethiopian Higher Education: Views of Students, Department Chairs and Deans of Faculties

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to explore the quality of academic teaching staff in Ethiopian higher education as perceived by students, department chairs and faculty deans. As a secondary objective, the study also intended to review factors that influence the quality of teachers in higher learning institutions. The study adopted a survey methodology for data collection using closed ended-questionnaires. The research included 11 public universities and 2 private higher learning institutions. A sample of 576 students, 197 department chairs and 55 deans (N=55) were included in the survey. Findings show that the quality of teachers in higher learning institutions was not high as expected, but better than average. A variety of factors were identified to have influence on teachers’ quality including low salaries and social acceptance, large class size and lack of teaching materials. From these findings it was concluded that there is a need to improve teachers’ quality by paying attention to issues identified to have associations with academic staff.