Faculty Perceptions on Academic Entitlement in Graduate Health Professional Students

Abstract

Objective: This descriptive study evaluates faculty perceptions of academic entitlement (AE) in graduate health professional students. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive survey design was used. Demographic data and faculty perceptions on the prevalence of AE in physician assistant students using two validated surveys were collected. One survey assessed AE as a unidimensional construct, and the second used a two-factor scale to assess entitled expectations (EE) and externalized responsibility (ER). The EE subscale assessed student expectations of faculty, and the ER subscale pertained to student expectations of the educational system. Faculty were recruited via email. Survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: One hundred sixty-eight faculty participated in the survey. On the Academic Entitlement Questionnaire and EE subscale score, faculty perceived high AE. They did not agree as strongly with items on the ER subscale. The highest AE perceptions were related to grades, professor roles, course delivery format, exam preparation, exam accommodations, and student responsibility to make up missed work. Faculty reported lower AE levels related to group work, university resources availability, consumerism, and professor knowledge. Conclusions: The sample population was well representative of graduate health faculty based on gender, ethnicity, race, age, years of experience, and tenure in education. Faculty reported high levels of AE in physician assistant students. Understanding faculty perception of students’ AE is essential because it can influence educators’ ability to create an environment for effective learning. Faculty should self-reflect and establish teaching strategies to mitigate AE and promote student learning.

Pharmacy faculty experiences with student academic entitlement: a multinational study from the Arab world

“…As for responsibility avoidance, it was previously reported that it positively correlates with entitlement, grandiosity, and narcissism, and negatively correlates with self-confidence, personal control, need for cognition, agreeableness, and meticulousness [ 4 ]. Our results on responsibility avoidance are also in parallel with other findings reported by faculty teaching health professions students who showed AE behaviors related to diminished student responsibility to make up their missed work, among other traits [ 24 ]. With such high scores of these AE components perceived by our sample of faculty among their students, counseling students over the importance for looking at their university education from the perspective of a learner rather than a customer, and raising awareness about the importance of responsibility for their personal and professional growth, may be ultimately needed across pharmacy colleges in our region.…”