Evaluating Educational Performance of Postgraduate Students Based on the Tennessee Academic Audit Model

Abstract

Background: The importance of improving quality and performance in higher education has led various universities to turn to effective methods of educational evaluation, such as auditing. Objectives: The present study evaluated the academic performance of the Tabriz Faculty of Management and Medical Informatics postgraduate students, an Iranian Center of Excellence in Health Management based on the Tennessee Academic Audit Model. Methods: This descriptive-cross sectional study was conducted in 2019 with the participation of educational managers and faculty members of the same faculties in two phases consisting of self-assessment and external evaluation. After contextualization, the Tennessee comprehensive higher education audit checklist was used. Data were studied descriptively, and the results were reported as frequency (percentage) and mean ± standard deviation. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s post hoc tests were used to evaluate the significance of the difference in academic performance between the educational groups. t-test was also used to evaluate the difference in performance scores in self-assessment and external evaluation phases. A P-value < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The participants’ performance in the self-assessment phase was moderate (total score: 5.32), and their performance in the external evaluation phase was weak (total score: 2.75). The best and the worst self-assessment scores were in the dimensions of “overall assessment” and “follow-up of previous academic audits,” respectively. In the external evaluation, the dimensions of “contributions to the program and university goals” and “follow-up of previous academic audits” had the best and worst performance scores, respectively. Conclusions: The results demonstrated that the Tabriz Faculty of Management and Medical Informatics of the Medical School needs to improve in terms of international standards. Therefore, managers and policymakers are required to implement interventions to address this gap.