The Journal of Medical Education and Development

Introduction: By studying the gap between expectations and perceptions of students from educational services, we can provide the base for developing appropriate programs for the improvement of educational services. This study was performed to assess the quality of educational services from the viewpoint of students in the School of Public Health at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences.

Methods:In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 86  students were selected by stratified sampling method in 2014. The standard SERVQUAL questionnaire with three main domains were  including; a)demographics; b) individuals' perception and c) individuals' expectation level in five educational service quality dimensions. Data were analyzed by SPSS 18 using descriptive statistics and correlation and paired samples T-tests at 0.05 significance level.

Result:There was a quality gap in all educational service quality dimensions. The highest average of quality gap was observed in the reliability(-2.14±1.26) and then in responsiveness  (-1.99±1.48), tangibles (-1.72±1.41) and empathy (-1.64±1.28) domains respectively. The lowest average belonged to assurance (-1.38±1.11). There was a statistically significant relationship between the quality gap in different dimensions of educational service quality and its related phrases (p<0.001).

Conclusion: Expectations of students are beyond their perception from current situation and their expectations are not met in any of service dimensions. In attempts to improve the quality of educational services,  improving each one of quality dimensions may improveother quality dimensions.