University students’ exposure to mobbing through assessment: the neglected dark side of educational evaluation

This study aims to investigate university students’ perceptions about being exposed to mobbing through assessment processes, and to understand the effects of factors including students’ gender, academic title of instructor, and enrolled faculty. Research data were collected from 1048 university students (Female = 541 and male = 507) studying at four different faculties of a medium-scale university in Turkey. ‘Mobbing through Measurement and Evaluation Scale’ was used to collect data. A 2 × 4 × 4 three-way ANOVA design was used to test the main and interaction effects of independent variables. The results suggested that participating students perceive themselves exposed to moderate level of mobbing through assessment in general. The highest level of mobbing was applied to male students by Assistant Professors at the Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences. In general, female students suffer less mobbing through assessment, with the lowest levels of mobbing seen at the Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences by Associate Professors.