Abstract

The quality of life of university teachers has gained increasing attention in contemporary educational research, as the professional effectiveness, productivity, and academic engagement of faculty members are closely associated with their overall well-being. The present study aimed to examine the level of quality of life among university teachers and to analyse the differences across gender and locality among faculty members of Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga, Bihar. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design to explore various dimensions of teachers’ quality of life. A total of 600 university teachers were selected through convenience sampling, comprising 300 male and 300 female faculty members from different departments and affiliated colleges of the university. The sample also included an equal representation of 300 urban and 300 rural teachers to facilitate locality-based comparison. Data were collected using the WHOQOL-BREF Scale developed by the World Health Organization, which measures four major domains of quality of life: physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environmental health. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach’s alpha, yielding a coefficient of 0.91, indicating high internal consistency and suitability of the scale for the present investigation. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics and independent samples t-tests. The findings revealed that the overall quality of life of university teachers was at a moderate level. Among the various dimensions, environmental health and social relationships demonstrated relatively higher levels, whereas psychological health was comparatively lower. The results further indicated significant differences in quality of life across gender and locality, suggesting that both personal and contextual factors influence the well-being of faculty members. The study highlights the importance of developing supportive institutional policies, strengthening psychological support systems, and improving working conditions to enhance the overall quality of life of university teachers. Improving teachers’ well-being may ultimately contribute to better teaching effectiveness, higher academic productivity, and the sustainable development of higher education institutions.