Assessment of Educational Status of Dental School Graduates of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, 1997 to 2002: A Short Report

Assessment of educational status is important and essential in order to survey the quality of educational systems. This study was performed to determine the educational status of Rafsanjan''s dental school graduates who had entered the university in the years 1997 to 2002. This cross-sectional study was carried out by census sampling and subjects'' information including age، entrance year to university، gender، university entrance ranking and allocation، grade-point average (GPA) of basic sciences، basic sciences comprehensive exam، didactic and practical scores of clinical courses were extracted. Data were analyzed by independent t-test، one way ANOVA، Pearson correlation coefficient and inter-item correlation tests. The scores of 101 dental school graduates [69 girls (68. 3%)، 32 boys (31. 7%)] were assessed. The mean and SD of GPA of basic sciences، clinical courses، total courses and scores of basic sciences comprehensive exam were 15. 46±1. 31، 16. 29±1. 01، 15. 99±1. 06 and 145. 22±16. 77، respectively. There was only significant difference in GPA of basic sciences between girls and boys (p=0. 02). Also، there were significant differences between GPA of total courses (p=0. 014) and scores of basic sciences comprehensive exam (p=0. 005) with entrance year to the university. The highest and lowest of average scores were related to the zones and Shahed allocations، respectively. There were significant correlations between age and time of high school graduation to entrance to the university with GPA of clinical courses (p<0. 001). Based on the results of this study، age، duration after high school graduation to entrance to university، gender، university entrance allocations are important and influencing factors in educational status; however، more comprehensive and prospective studies in this field seem necessary.