Combined survey findings 2019–2025

Three waves of the survey were conducted in 2019, 2022 and 2025. In 2025, 17 universities spanning nine countries and four continents took part. In total, 12,071 academics participated in the 2025 survey, representing all career stages from PhD students to university presidents. Participating institutions included King’s College London, Utrecht University, the University of New South Wales and the University of British Columbia.

The combined findings provide insight into the views of academics at institutions working to strengthen how university teaching is valued and recognised, and how these perspectives vary across participating universities and academic subgroups. For the 10 universities that have participated in all three survey waves, the findings also show how views and experiences have changed over time between 2019 and 2025 as reforms to academic career pathways and promotion processes have been introduced.

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Published Feb. 2026
Sponsor: university consortium

Across the dataset, the analysis points to considerable variation between institutions, alongside several clear patterns. These include the central role of departmental leadership commitment in shaping academics’ experiences of university teaching culture; marked differences in perceptions by career stage; the importance of alignment between education-focused and research-and-teaching colleagues; and persistently low confidence in how university teaching quality is measured. Taken together, the findings identify the factors most closely associated with positive and durable change in how university teaching is valued and rewarded.

Previous survey waves

2022 survey

This report highlights findings from the 11,614 respondents that took part in the 2022 survey, focusing on how the findings have changed between 2019 and 2022.

2019 survey

This report highlights consolidated findings from 15,659 academics who participated in the 2019 survey, taken from 21 universities across 10 countries.

2019 survey videos

Findings from the 2019 Teaching Cultures Survey – from across 15,659 academics at 21 universities in 10 countries – were released in May 2020. The videos below provide an overview of the survey findings and offer perspectives from two participating universities: Radboud University in the Netherlands and the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Overview of survey

Introduction to the Teaching Cultures Survey and overview of the combined 2019 findings

Radboud University

Feedback from Prof. Han van Krieken, Rector Magnificus at Radboud University

University of Auckland

Feedback from Prof. Graeme Aitken, Director of Educational Initiatives at the University of Auckland

Institutional findings

Participating universities will be provided with the survey findings from their institution; these findings are strictly confidential and will not be shared elsewhere

On completion of each survey run, participating universities will be provided with:

(i) a report outlining the key outcomes for each institution, mapped alongside the amalgamated data for all institutions;

(ii) a spreadsheet of aggregated findings for each survey question, cut by role, gender, discipline, length of employment at the university, and level of focus on teaching. Where the number of survey participants in a particular group (e.g. a discipline group) is small, categories will be combined to protect anonymity

Both items will be strictly confidential and will be shared only with the project's institutional and administrative lead from the university in question at the close of each survey stage.

Combined findings

2022 survey findings

The Teaching Cultures Survey 2022 is the second of three cross-sectional surveys designed to capture and track the culture and status of teaching within universities worldwide.

This report highlights consolidated findings from the 16 universities across eight countries that participated in the Teaching Cultures Survey 2022, including three new institutions that joined the survey for this run (11,614 academics in total). The report focuses on the ways in which survey findings have changed over time, between 2019 and 2022. The 2022 survey comes in the wake of an extended period of ‘emergency teaching’ across the higher education sector prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Published October 2022

2019 survey findings

This report highlights consolidated findings from 15,659 academics who participated in the 2019 Teaching Cultures Survey, taken from 21 universities across 10 countries. Launched in 2019, the Teaching Cultures Survey is designed to explore the culture and status of teaching in higher education. Most universities participating in the survey are planning or already implementing systemic changes to academic career pathways and the ways in which achievements in university teaching are rewarded. The survey enables them to capture and track the culture and status of university teaching amongst their academic community and compare findings with global peers.

Published May 2020

Video: 2019 survey findings

Findings from the 2019 Teaching Cultures Survey – from across 15,659 academics at 21 universities in 10 countries – were released in May 2020. The videos below provide an overview of the survey findings and offer perspectives from two participating universities: Radboud University in the Netherlands and the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Overview of survey

Introduction to the Teaching Cultures Survey and overview of the combined 2019 findings

Radboud University

Feedback from Prof. Han van Krieken, Rector Magnificus at Radboud University

University of Auckland

Feedback from Prof. Graeme Aitken, Director of Educational Initiatives at the University of Auckland