Bullying, maltreatment and uncivil faculty member behaviors at universities

Objective: Bullying and uncivil behaviors frequently happen in higher education lecture halls. This study aimed at exploring college students bullying incidents and mistreatments by faculty members, witnesses, and the type of bullying, where bullying and exploitations mostly happen. Method: A total 2646 (1493 female & 1185 male) students from a mid-size state university studying at every accessible department voluntarily participated to fill out a survey. A survey instrument and a social demographic information form is used to collect data. A chi-square test and several descriptive statistics were run to analyze the data. Results: Results revealed that 10 % of student were threatened being graded lower or being failed, 21 % stated that they did not believe in fair investigation even when they could complain to the relevant authorities in the university. Among them, 31 % of the students witnessed a faculty member threatening students’ in an uncivil manner. Male faculty members were 4 times more likely to bully student or act uncivil behaviors than female faculty members. Assistant professor or younger faculty members tend to behave more negatively than higher ranking or older professors. Conclusions: Most of the incidents happen during the class. Results show that bullying is a universal phenomenon and it appears in every level and field of education. Even though there are cultural and departmental differences, and department-specific misbehaviors, it is still common in every level of education in every culture.