Factors Contributing to Educational Achievement and Success in Birjand University of Medical Sciences

Background and purpose: An understanding of the factors contributing to students success or causing failure help us find a solution to prevent waste of resources and contribute to develop a more effective educational system. This study is an attempt to find out the factors contributing to educational success in Birjand University of Medical Sciences and Health Services.Methods: All students of Birjand University of Medical Sciences who studied in first semester 2003-2004 participated. A self-administered questionnaire was given to students who were present at theirclasses. The questionnaire included questions on age sex grade point average, parents’ level of literary, parents’ occupation satisfaction with their field of study, satisfaction with quality of instructions and educational activities provided, occupational prospect, and the rapport establishedbetween students and instructors. The students were divided into two groups based on GPA. The data were extracted and analyzed with SPSS4 software. Chi-square test, t-test, non-parametric Man-Whitney test, Fisher exact test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient were used to find out thesignificance of the results (p<0.05).Results:Of all 390 students of Birjand University of Medical Sciences who participated, 9.2% had a GPA<14 (failed) and 80.8% had a GPAe”14 (succeeded); 79.3% were single, and 78.7% were from other cities. The mean GPA was 15.8±1.6. Of all students with educational failure, 50.7% were male while 49.3% were female with no significant difference. Of all students with educational failure, 78.7% were single and 21.3% were married with no significant difference. No significant difference was observed for the fathers’ literacy on students’ educational failure while a comparison of students whose mothers were illiterate with students whose mothers had a general diploma (P=0.04) and with students whose mothers had an academic degree (P=0.003) showed a significant difference. Therewas a significant difference between students with GPAe”14 and those with GPA <14 on how they think of their educational prospect. Mean hours of study was 7.5 hours for students who failed (GPA<14) and 10.3 hours for students who succeeded (GPAe”14) with no significant difference.Conclusion: As the students’ success in medicine is an important goal in terms of all relevant resources spent to train physicians, and given the fact that many factors are involved we recommend that similar studies are carried out in other universities of medical sciences to help identify the factors contributing to students’ success more vigorously.