Abstract:
Student evaluations of teaching are quite popular and old quality assurance and yet full of
challenges on implementation. The objective of the study was to establish challenges encountered
by university students in evaluating lecturers at Chinhoyi University of Technology. In order to
fulfil this objective, case study descriptive research design was adopted. The population of the
study composed of Chinhoyi University students particularly from School of Entrepreneurship and
Business Management. The sample composed sixty-seven students undertaking E-Business
course. The research employed cluster sampling since the course is undertaken by different
faculties. Data was gathered using semi-structured and unstructured questionnaires. On challenges
encountered by students in conducting lecturer evaluations, there were perceptions that students
do not consider them seriously. More so, students suspect that student evaluations are not used at
all for the improvement of teaching and learning. In addition, students were reluctant to complete
them since they feared to be personally identified and later victimised by lecturers. Furthermore,
students perceived that lecturer ratings were generally biased by grade and mark expectations by
students among other several factors. Therefore, the study recommends the university to use
multiple methods of evaluating lecturers’ teaching. Secondly, evaluation of lecturers should be
conducted during the semester and not left at the end of it, in order to have positive impact on
teaching and learning.
