The Concept of Educational Achievement and its Effective Factors according to the Overseas Graduate's Point of View: a Qualitative Study

The importance of dispatching students to foreign countries to continue education is so obvious that even developed countries are not needless of that. Hence, this study was conducted to evaluate the opinion of overseas graduates, who were on a scholarship, about the meaning and concepts of educational achievement and its effective factors. In this qualitative study, 11 faculty members of Kerman University of Medical Sciences who have been graduated from foreign universities participated. They were inquired into their opinions about assessment criteria of educational achievement and its effective factors using an open interview. Among the most important concepts of educational achievement regarding education quantity, attending seminars and conferences can be pointed out. The efficiency of learned materials and learning professional scientific topics are important considering education quality and learning extra topics, respectively. The interviewees also believed that personal factors including personality, family, economic affairs, having professional knowledge in the field of study, necessary skills in the language of the target university and its status especially tutors, topic and field of research were also substantial. Our findings suggest that concepts of academic achievement are vast and one cannot be considered successful assessing only one or some criteria. Hence, duration of study, the amount of scientific products and their quality, the amount of scientific connections and the application of learned topics by the learner are to be noted.