Survey on Reasons behind Postgraduate Medical Thesis Delay at virtual School of Medical Education and Management of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences

Students’ dissertations is a prerequisite for graduation and given that a majority of the students delayed in completing and submitting the dissertation, our study aims to determine the causes behind the delay in timely completion of dissertation among virtual School of Medical Education and Management,faculty graduates at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

This cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study was conducted in 1399 with a sample size of 98 students using the postgraduate research experience questionnaire (PREQ) to evaluate students’ viewpoints, after translation and cultural adaptation, with a content validity of 0.62 and a reliability of 0.709. PREQ assessed research experience in seven dimensions of supervision, resources, research culture, advancement and evaluation, responsibilities, research skills, and professional development with 28 questions in a five-point Likert scale.

Overall, 49% were female and 51% were male participated, 73.5% under the age of 40, 99% in graduate school, and 97% in medical education. About 40.8% were in the middle of thesis writing stage and 33.7% were in the defense stage. The supervision variable with an average of 4,087 ± 0.5338, and the research skills variable with an average of 4.07 ± 0.561 had the greatest impact on students' dissertation progress.

Considering that students have in mind various alternatives to advance their research work, so planning to strengthen these ways minimizes the delay in defending the dissertation among postgraduate students.