Academic Preparation, Effort and Success: A Comparison of Student and Faculty Perceptions

In the spring of 2003, a survey was conducted to examine the differences in perceptions of academic rigor and engagement between faculty and undergraduate students at a small, liberal arts university in the Midwest. Although a sample bias in the student responses (students with higher GPAs had a higher tendency to respond) precluded a number of direct comparisons, a number of key inferences could be drawn. Faculty respondents correctly estimated the number of hours students spend studying outside of the classroom, and did not find this level of effort sufficient to obtain grades of A or B, while the student respondents achieving these grades with the level of effort predicted by faculty felt that their courses were reasonably challenging, and did not feel burdened with assigned out-of-class work. Although faculty respondents appear to recognize that a discrepancy between expected effort and grade assignments exists, they did not feel that they were apart of the problem. It would appear that in this instance, the greatest impediment to modifying grading practices to meet with stated expectations of effort will not be making faculty aware that a problem exists, but rather convincing faculty that they might be contributing to the problem. The academic climate of institutions of higher education has been the focus of considerable research. Recent attention has focused on the disparity between expectations of academic effort conveyed by higher-education officials, and the effort actually required for students to be successful. Although most university officials inform incoming students that 2 hours of study outside of class will be required for every hour in class in order to obtain satisfactory grades, most students report substantially fewer hours of study outside of the classroom (National Survey of Student Engagement, 2000). Almost 60 percent of full-time college and university students are studying less than 15 hours outside of the classroom each week, and many of those students are not studying at all (National Survey of Student Engagement, 2000). A comprehensive history of higher education reports a nationwide trend of undergraduates resisting the academic demands placed upon students by faculty and administration, and suggests a collegiate culture more focused on social than on academic activities (Horowitz, 1987). The resulting implicit and explicit negotiations between faculty and students to teach a collective consensus about how much effort should be required for academic success are undermined when students discover that far less effort than that suggested by faculty will result in satisfactory grades. The present investigation measured the academic expectations of students and faculty in a Midwestern liberal arts university, with an enrollment approaching 6,000. The goal was to measure the academic expectations and opinions of both students and faculty, and to determine how attitudes toward academic preparation, effort, performance, and standards differed between students and faculty. Methods In the spring semester of 2003, separate questionnaires were delivered via an online delivery platform to a random sample of undergraduate students and to all faculty members who teach undergraduate classes at a liberal arts university in the Midwest, with an enrollment approaching 6,000 students. Admission is open at this institution for students that graduated high school prior to 2001, and for applicants over the age of 21. For students finishing high school during or after 2001, admission is contingent upon either completing a pre-college curriculum (4 units of English, 3 units of natural science, 3 units of math, 3 units of social sciences, and 1 unit of computer technology) with a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale, achieving an ACT score of 21 or higher, or ranking in the top third of the students graduating from their high school class. The questionnaire asked students and faculty whether they (or their students) felt they were living up to their academic potential, and whether high school had adequately prepared them (or their students) for university coursework. …