PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to answer two basic research questions: “Does high emotional intelligence affect teaching effectiveness at universities?” and “What role do personality traits play in moderating that relationship?”Design/methodology/approachThe paper is a quantitative study using self-reporting questionnaires on 410 students and 32 faculty members. The resulting relationships and model fit are confirmed using SEM.FindingsThe paper shows the importance of high emotional intelligent teachers in universities to increase teaching effectiveness. The paper also shows that the personality traits of the teacher moderate this positive relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThe study uses students' responses. Students might negatively assess their professors for different purposes. This puts in question the reliability of student ratings, especially when taking into consideration students' mood.Practical implicationsThe paper makes two major recommendations to universities. The first recommendation is to hire emotionally intelligent teachers. The second recommendation is to conduct emotional intelligence workshops for existing teachers in order to improve their EI skills. Both recommendations will increase teaching effectiveness, therefore, better learning and a higher chance of better students' academic achievement, better teacher-student relationship, higher students' satisfaction and better university environment/teaching reputation.Originality/valueThe research model is tested for the first time in the Lebanese higher educational sector.