Students’ Perceptions of American and Nigerian Teaching Faculty at a Private University – A Nigerian Case Study

Understanding students’ perceptions is critical to delivering consistent quality service at an American-style higher level education institution. This paper describes an exploratory study that investigates students’ perceptions of American expatriate and Nigerian national teaching faculty at an American style education setting in northern Nigeria based on clearly defined faculty evaluation ratings. These perceptions are specific to three areas across all disciplines and schools: course, instructor and student. The three areas are each rated from the highest possible score of five. The findings indicate that American teaching expatriate citizens rated slightly higher than the Nigerian nationals. The discussion offers insight into possible judging errors made by the rater – student and how that may distort the results and lead to speculations and uncovering phenomenon. By evaluating these perceptions, it is anticipated that our analysis will create a starting point for examining how an American style education can be maintained and supported in a Nigerian education system.