Educational service quality of Tehran University of Medical Sciences: the student's perspective

Quantitative expansion of higher education, regardless of quality, will have negative consequences. Students are the main customers of universities and learning about their perception and expectations of the educational system can provide valuable insight for planners to promote education quality. This study aims to examine quality gaps in educational services by perceptions and expectations of students in Tehran University of Medical Sciences. A cross-sectional study was performed 2010 in Tehran, Iran. The study population consisted of all students in various majors in Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran. A multistage sampling method was carried out. First, a sample of students was selected as Stratified Random Sampling from three schools, and then 198 students were selected. The study questionnaire was the SERVQUAL standard questionnaire. Student's expectations in all aspects were higher than the current status. The total mean score of Student's expectation and perception was 4.02 and 2.63, respectively. There were significant differences between perception and expectation (p< 0.0001). The highest and lowest negative gap score was related to responsibility (-1.64) and assurance dimensions (-1.14), respectively. According to the results, it is proposed that a project to be implemented for fault findings to identifying the barriers and challenges related to quality of education. Enhancing the communication skills of teaching staff and effective communication with students by organizing training courses could be among other applicable strategies