Student Grooming Issues

When professors dress in a professional and appropriate manner, the likelihood of self-confidence and self-respect getting a boost is high. A professor must always be conscious of how he/she looks, must be well-groomed, well-dressed, cheerful, smart and healthy. Should a professor want to send a signal of seriousness and of civility, the students will pick up the signals. Personal grooming comes along with it personal hygiene, therefore it will not be a great learning environment if students have to face professors with body odor or personal hygiene that is unhealthy. Being employees of a university, it is crucial for the teaching staff to dress appropriately as they represent the image of the university itself. The cultural perspective

The question of not dressing appropriately is not an issue at all in the context of Malaysian professors. Thus, when students evaluate professors at the end of the semester, majority of the academic staff have been rated with high scores on this aspect. A study by Zander (2013) found that more than 50% of international students and teachers have a shared perception of what constitutes impolite behavior pertaining to personal grooming. Not dressing well is a sign of impolite behavior by international students and teachers, making it an imperative to be properly attired when teaching, or giving instructions and in general creating conducive class environment of interactions and discussions. Jensen (2008) wrote about a move to have a code for professional attire for academicians because “during the academic golden age, outliers who refused to follow high standards were viewed with disdain.” The code stipulated the wearing of neck ties; avoiding attire that made professors look like students; wearing appropriate attire for different geographic locations; what to wear outside of class teaching times; etc. The objective basically was to limit the extent to which students speculate about the professors rather than

Of course, one 's behavior is generally more important than one 's appearance in this regard. However, if a professor behaves in a way that says he/she wants to be regarded seriously but then shows up to teach class in flip-flops; wrinkled pants and worn-out t-shirts, then the professor is certainly working at cross purposes. However, in the face of academic freedom and individual expression, therein lies the polemic of conforming to societal norms of dress, or any societal norms. The quality of work of a professor is more valuable and highly regarded compared to how the professor looks. But when a professor is well-dressed with a sense of decorum, he/she commands respectability; he/she emanates a sense of being someone who is organized, systematic and orderly. The case for dressing professionally applies to everyone just the same, and to young male and female professors who are trying to establish themselves as professionals it especially applies. From the perspective of a student, I am inclined to choose the view that a professor should have a good sense of personal grooming, as his/her credibility does depend to a certain degree on his/her overall