Student preferences over their teachers’ demographic characteristics: Evidence from three experiments

Existing empirical research shows that students benefit from, and often prefer to be taught by, instructors who share their demographic traits. However, it is unclear whether these patterns hold for students from an international background. Students who pursue higher education abroad might instead seek instructors from different backgrounds. Using data from three experiments across two student samples at leading research-intensive UK institutions, we provide the first causal evidence on international students’ preferences for instructor ethnicity and gender, and compare these with those of home students. We find that students prefer same-ethnicity instructors, but the effect is stronger for home students (0.17 standard deviations) than for international students (0.12 standard deviations). Home students also show modest same-gender preferences (0.05 standard deviations), whereas international students do not. Moreover, international students are less likely to choose same-ethnicity, same-gender instructors, suggesting that demographic similarity is not always preferred in cross-cultural settings. Finally, exploratory evidence indicates that preferences are shaped more by cultural cues than by ethnicity alone.