Students evaluation of teaching and gender bias in the degrees of architecture and building engineering.

Resumen

The enrolment of women in building and architecture studies does not reflectaccurately their actual contribution to this professional field. In contrast to otherengineering degrees [1], the contribution of female students to the overallregistration is higher and somewhat similar to the presence of male students.However, the percentage of women that work in the field of building engineeringand architecture is quite low [2] and the prospects of a trend change are scant[3]. On the other hand, the percentage of women teaching in architecture andbuilding schools is clearly lower than that of female students. Student surveys are the most common method to assess the quality of teachingin higher education [4]. This is somehow controversial [5], as some countriesand/or universities use these results to take actions on the career progress oftheir faculty. Among the opposing arguments against this methodology, thepossible existence of bias -and in particular gender bias- might invalidate thequality assessment results [6].The main objective of this work is to analyze the status of the female faculty atthe School of Architecture (ETSAE) of Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena,and evaluate how the students evaluation of their teaching activities compare tothose of the male faculty members. A methodology to analyze the results of thesurveys during the academic year 2015-16 is presented, that aims to quantifythe influence of gender in the quality performance indicators of the qualityassessment. Undergraduate and graduate programs at ETSAE are evaluated,and the extension of this methodology to other degrees at UPCT is discussed