The Effect of Casual Teaching on Student Satisfaction : Evidence from the UK

Using data on student satisfaction and teaching time in the UK, we examine how the proportion of teaching conducted by casual staff affected student satisfaction in the 2014-15 academic year. We find that an increased proportion of casual teaching leads to lower student satisfaction, even when controlling for the respondent's subject, university and faculty. This suggests that there is a trade-off between increasing casualisation and student satisfaction which could have implications for future student demand. These results can be generalised to the rest of the economy and highlight potential perverse effects arising from the use of casual contracts