The Effect of Developing and Administering a Strategic Plan on Perceived Educational Quality by Students in Ahvaz School of Rehabilitation Sceinces

This study aimed to investigate the effect of developing and administering a strategic plan on perceived educational quality by students in Ahvaz faculty of rehabilitation sciences. In this interventional study, perceived educational quality by students was investigated before and after developing and administering a strategic plan. Based on the number of students in each educational department and using stratified-random sampling method, 146 students in disciplines of speech and language pathology, physical therapy, audiology, and occupational therapy were selected to participate in the study. For data collection, a standardized SERVQUAL questionnaire including five dimensions of educational services quality (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) with approved validity and reliability was applied. Data analysis was executed by using SPSS version 18 and applying descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and analytical (Wilcoxon signed-rank test) statistical methods. Before developing and administering the strategic plan, a significant difference was observed between mean scores of perceived and expected tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy by students (p < 0.001). However, after developing and administering the strategic plan, the expected and perceived levels of students' satisfaction with educational services were almost equal. Furthermore, in developing and administering the strategic plan, by prioritizing and devoting the budget to the dimensions with highest gap, the students estimated the quality of faculty’s educational services equal to and in line with their expected status.