Quality of Educational Services for Medical Students in Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences (2018 - 19)

Being aware of the quality of educational services offered by universities can be a basis for planning, policy making and improving the quality of their educational services.

Hence, this research aims to evaluate the quality of educational services of the medical students in Iran.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among the medical students, selected by simple random sampling. A total of 252 students completed questionnaires. The data collection tool was the standard questionnaire of SERVQUAL. Data were analyzed in SPSS software version 24 using descriptive and inferential statistics.

There was a negative gap between the students’ expectations and perceptions of educational services (gap between the current status and the desirable situation) in each of the five dimensions of the quality of educational services (from maximum score of 5). The scores of gap for each dimension out of a maximum of 5 are as follows: accountability (-1.46), tangibility (-1.34), empathy (-1.25), reliability (-1.14) and assurance (-1.12). There was a meaningful relationship between the educational service gap and variables of gender, academic year, satisfaction with the field of study and university (P < 0.05).

The present study revealed a negative gap in all five dimensions of quality of educational services. With planning, proper allocation of resources and actions such as holding workshops for the employees and faculty members, these gaps can be minimized. To this end, first, we must pay attention to the dimensions with the highest quality gaps; attention to one dimension can affect other dimensions.