University Students’ Perceptions of Student-Academic Incivility in Higher Education: A Study at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.57125/FS.2026.06.20.05Keywords:
academic incivility, bullying, faculty members, frequency of incivility, mental health, psychological well-being, students’ incivility, university students, University of Cape Coast, violence.Abstract
Academic incivility (AI) has emerged as a significant challenge in higher education institutions worldwide. Reports of verbal and physical bullying, violence, denied access to institutional facilities, and intimidation have taken the better part of life on various campuses. This phenomenon has far-reaching implications, undermining not only teaching and learning but also derailing interpersonal relationships among colleagues, students and faculty, as well as among faculty and support staff. This study was conducted to investigate the perceptions of undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), a pioneer public institution in Ghana, concerning various forms of uncivil academic behaviours displayed on campus. Utilising a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from a sample of 564 students across four Colleges within the university. The 25-item questionnaire used for data collection hinged on Feldmann’s (2001) taxonomy of academic incivility. The study examined the perceived seriousness of specific uncivil behaviours among students within the academic environment. Findings revealed a high prevalence of student academic incivility, particularly involving violence, dishonesty, wrong phone use and disruptive classroom behaviours. These results underscore the urgent need to implement institutional measures to promote civility and safeguard the psychological well-being of both students and staff at the research site.
References
Abd-El-Aal, W. M. M., & Steele, A. (2022). Incivility in science teacher education: What are we actually teaching and learning? In Global perspectives on microaggressions in higher education (pp. 83–100). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003244394-7
Aliakbari, M., & Hajizadeh, A. (2018). Students' perceptions towards teachers' and students' academic impoliteness. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 30(1), 91–104. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1169836.pdf
Ballard, A., DeTamble, R., Dorsey, S., Heseltine, M., & Johnson, M. (2022). Incivility in congressional tweets. American Politics Research, 50(6), 769–780. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X221109516
Bartlett, M. E., & Bartlett, J. E. (2016). Case study on the impact of technology on incivility in higher education. Journal of Educators Online, 13(2), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.9743/JEO.2016.2.7
Bhardwaj, V., Zhang, S., Tan, Y. Q., & Pandey, V. (2025). Redefining learning: Student-centered strategies for academic and personal growth. Frontiers in Education, 10, Article 1518602. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1518602
Buhrow, S. R., & Yehle, R. R. (2023). Nursing academic incivility awareness among ADN nursing students. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 18(1), 107–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2022.08.009
Burke, L. A., Karl, K., Peluchette, J., & Evans, W. R. (2014). Student incivility: A domain review. Journal of Management Education, 38(2), 160–191. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562913494883
Chory, R. M., & Offstein, E. H. (2017). Outside the classroom walls: Perceptions of professor inappropriate out-of-class conduct and student classroom incivility among American business students. Journal of Academic Ethics, 15(3), 197–214. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-017-9279-9
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). The general causality orientations scale: Self-determination in personality. Journal of Research in Personality, 19(2), 109–134. https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-6566(85)90023-6
Dörnyei, Z., & Muir, C. (2019). Creating a motivating classroom environment. In X. Gao (Ed.), Second handbook of English language teaching (pp. 719–736). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02899-2_36
El Hachi, M. (2020). Faculty incivility: Lived experiences of nursing graduates in the United Arab Emirates. International Nursing Review, 67(1), 127–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.12554
Feldmann, L. J. (2001). Classroom civility is another of our instructor responsibilities. College Teaching, 49(4), 137–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2001.10844595
Hudgins, T., Layne, D., Kusch, C. E., & Lounsbury, K. (2023). An analysis of the perceptions of incivility in higher education. Journal of Academic Ethics, 21(2), 177–191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-022-09448-2
Ibrahim, S. A. E. A., & Qalawa, S. A. (2016). Factors affecting nursing students' incivility: As perceived by students and faculty staff. Nurse Education Today, 36, 118–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2015.08.014
Karim, A., Rahman, B., & Kabilan, M. K. (2024). Student misbehaviors, university instructors' mental health, and trauma management: A phenomenological study. The Qualitative Report, 29(10), 2716–2749. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2024.6203
Khan, A. H., Hameed, A. M., & Khaliq, T. (2022). Incivility among university students on campus: Causes and impact. Pakistan Journal of Social Research, 4(1), 755–764. https://doi.org/10.52567/pjsr.v4i1.956
Kim, Y., Kim, Y. S., Nwamu, H., & Lama, A. (2024). Building confidence, diminishing stress: A clinical incivility management initiative for nursing students. Nursing Reports, 14(3), 2485–2498. https://doi.org/10.3390/nursrep14030183
King, F. D., & Kabat-Farr, D. (2022). Student stress in focus: Short-term fixes and long-term pedagogical change in business school curriculum. The International Journal of Management Education, 20(1), Article 100605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2022.100605
Lemon, K., & Barnes, K. (2021). Workplace bullying among higher education faculty: A review of the theoretical and empirical literature. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 21(9), 203–216. https://doi.org/10.33423/jhetp.v21i9.4601
Marques, D. N., & Macedo, A. F. (2016). Perceptions of acceptable conducts by university students. Journal of Optometry, 9(3), 166–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optom.2015.02.001
Moghimian, M., Farzi, S., Abbaszadeh, A., Shahzeydi, A., Farzi, F., & Musarezaie, A. (2023). Exploring nursing students' and faculty members' perspective on incivility in the online learning environment: A descriptive qualitative study. Journal of Qualitative Research in Health Sciences, 12(1), 25–30. https://doi.org/10.34172/jqr.2023.04
Nguyen-Viet, B., & Nguyen, P. M. (2024). The impact of lecturer incivility on student academic performance and the role of social support in Vietnamese higher education. SAGE Open, 14(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241309713
Orfan, S. N. (2023). Student incivility in higher education of Afghanistan: Lecturers' perspectives. Cogent Education, 10(2), Article 2282302. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2282302
Parray, Z. A., Islam, S. U., & Shah, T. A. (2023). Impact of workplace incivility and emotional exhaustion on job outcomes — A study of the higher education sector. International Journal of Educational Management, 37(5), 1024–1041. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-07-2022-0267
Piotrowski, C., & King, C. (2016). The enigma of adult bullying in higher education: A research-based conceptual framework. Education, 136(3), 299–306.
Pittman, C. (2023). Addressing incivility in the classroom: Effective strategies for faculty at the margins. In Difficult subjects (pp. 54–71). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003444220-5
Rawlins, L. (2017). Faculty and student incivility in undergraduate nursing education: An integrative review. Journal of Nursing Education, 56(12), 709–716. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20171120-02
Rose, K., Jenkins, S., Mallory, C., Astroth, K., Woith, W., & Jarvill, M. (2020). An integrative review examining student-to-student incivility and effective strategies to address incivility in nursing education. Nurse Educator, 45(3), 165–168. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNE.0000000000000719
Rosiek, A., Rosiek-Kryszewska, A., Leksowski, Ł., & Leksowski, K. (2016). Chronic stress and suicidal thinking among medical students. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 13(2), Article 212. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13020212
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68
Schilpzand, P., De Pater, I. E., & Erez, A. (2016). Workplace incivility: A review of the literature and agenda for future research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37(S1), S57–S88. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1976
Sepehrinia, M., Shali, M., & Vaezi, A. (2024). Incivility in higher education: A qualitative study. Preventive Care in Nursing & Midwifery Journal, 14(3), 22–31. https://doi.org/10.61186/pcnm.14.3.22
Snyder-Yuly, J. L., Patton, T. O., & Gomez, S. L. (2021). Welcome to academia, expect cyberbullying: Contrapower and incivility in higher education. In L. Ramos Salazar (Ed.), Handbook of research on cyberbullying and online harassment in the workplace (pp. 242–265). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-4912-4.ch012
Turnipseed, D. L., & Landay, K. (2018). The role of the dark triad in perceptions of academic incivility. Personality and Individual Differences, 135, 286–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.07.029
Vasconcelos, A. F. (2020). Analyzing the effects of incivility beyond workplaces. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 28(5), 1069–1093. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-08-2019-1865
Vural, L., & Bacioglu, S. D. (2020). Student incivility in higher education. International Journal of Progressive Education, 16(5), 305–316. https://doi.org/10.29329/ijpe.2020.277.19
Walsh, B. M., Lee, J., Jensen, J. M., McGonagle, A. K., & Samnani, A. K. (2018). Positive leader behaviours and workplace incivility: The mediating role of perceived norms for respect. Journal of Business and Psychology, 33(4), 495–508. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-017-9505-x
Zhou, T., & Colomer, J. (2024). Cooperative learning promoting cultural diversity and individual accountability: A systematic review. Education Sciences, 14(6), Article 567. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14060567
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 author
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.