Factors Affecting Students' Participation in the Academic Members’ Evaluation Process from the Perspective of Academic Members and Students of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences

Maximum student participation in the faculty members’ evaluation might lead to improvement in the quality of education. Therefore, identifying the barriers of student’s participation is the first step in this process. This study was conducted to determine the views of students and faculty members of Tabriz faculty of Dentistry on the factors affecting student’s participation in faculty members’ evaluation during 2019-2020.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was performed in two parts; faculty members and students. The main tools of this research were two researcher-made questionnaires. 108 students and 84 faculty members completed the questionnaires. The questions of both questionnaires were assessed with a 5-point Likert scale. Data were statistically analyzed using SPSS17 statistical software with descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage).

From the point of view of 97.6% of faculty members, the most important factor in the student participation rate was ensuring the confidentiality of information, and the second issue was holding an orientation meeting for students before evaluation, with 89.3% rate.
From the students' point of view, the most important factors were to ensure the confidentiality of information and the relevance of the questionnaire’s questions to the educational challenges of students, which both cases were emphasized by 100% of students.

Effectively reassuring students about the confidentiality of their information and giving feedback on the results to faculty members and faculty officials are the most important factors in encouraging students to participate in faculty members’ evaluation.