FIMA Year Book 2009 - Federation of Islamic Medical Associations

Quality Assuranceas marking a sample of the answer sheetsto make sure those internal markingstandards are comparable to externalones and meeting the requirementsnationally and internationally.Evaluation of the systemAdmitting good students meanshigh quality. Only the best shouldbe admitted. Besides the academicgrades, consideration should begiven to character and motivationto study medicine. Experience hasshown that diversity improves quality.Student counseling services should beprovided for all students. There mustexist mechanisms for identifying andcounseling failing students as early aspossible (20) .Students are the most importantstakeholders in the educationalprocess. Therefore their satisfactionis very important. We have to listento them and address their concerns.We can get student feedback from theexaminations. This feedback is collectedthrough use of questionnaires. Thesequestionnaires are more effective ifadministered regularly usually at theend of each unit or module. Studentsshould be asked to indicate their degreeof satisfaction with each individuallearning objective. If there are toomany objectives we may group theminto natural categories and select afew objectives from each category forinclusion in the questionnaire. Alongthe formal feedback there should bean informal mechanism of feedbackfrom the students and faculty reflectingupon the process of learning as awhole as well as on individual sectorsof learning and education. It is alwaysmore realistic to get feedback from thestudents, faculty members and otherstakeholders during informal meetings.Quality control in research at alllevelsThe quality culture can never beembedded in teaching and learninguntil it is fully supported and enhancedby continuous research and innovationprocess in the university or faculty.The university must allocate fundsfor research. The research budgetshould not be less than one percentof the university operational budget.Academic staff must be given incentivesfor good research. They must be giventime for research. This requires carefulbalancing of teaching and researchwhich may be difficult when there isa shortage of teaching staff. Researchcommittees must exist at the universityand faculty levels. The researchprotocols, strategies and outcomesshould be closely monitored and linkedwith the postgraduate strategy becauseacademic staff undertakes research bydirecting and supervising postgraduatestudents. It is research which measuresthe standard of any faculty or university.It also enhances the academic standardsby making the medical teachers ascreators of knowledge instead of beingonly consumers of knowledge who justpass it on to the students. The researcheralways keeps maintaining a cuttingFIMA YearBook 2009164