Prevalence of mistreatment and justice of grading system in five health related faculties in Jordan University of Science and Technology

Background: Many Jordanian university students complain of the behavior of some teaching staff. Also, they complain of the grading systems in universities. Aim: This study concerns the occurrence of different forms of student mistreatment and student mistrust of the grading system in the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) as an example of universities in Jordan. Method: A total of 500 students in five health related faculties in JUST responded to a questionnaire. Results: Our results were as follow: (i) 61% of the students had experienced at least one form of mistreatment; (ii) perceived mistreatment most often (52%) had taken the form of psychological mistreatment (shouting and humiliation); (iii) other forms of mistreatment such as physical harm (32%), mistreatment related to religion (36%), mistreatment related to external appearance (35%), sexual harassment (33%) and mistreatment related to specialty (29%) were also common; (iv) with the exception of mistreatment related to specialty which was high among the nursing students, perceived mistreatment did not vary significantly between the different faculties; (v) the male students (66%) complain more than female students (56%); (vi) perceived mistreatment was exceptionally high among the Israeli Arabs, 83% compared to 59% for the Jordanians and 65% for other non-Jordanian Arabs; (vii) fellow students (44%), professors (37%) and laboratory technicians (19%) were cited as major sources of mistreatment. Many students (66%) believe that grading system in JUST is unfair. Ninety seven percent of the Israeli Arabs did not trust the grading system compared to 64% of the Jordanians and 66% of the non-Jordanian Arabs. Conclusions: This study suggests that, feelings of mistreatment among university students is strong while their trust of the university grading system is low. Perceived mistreatment and an unfair grading system may be a major source of stress among our students and may affect the process of teaching and learning in our country. This should alert the university administration to face these issues and try to solve them.