Educational Satisfaction of Public Health Undergraduates: A cross sectional study in Nepal

Abstract

Educational satisfaction determines the quality of education system which interns affects the performance and achievement of students during study and finally future professional competencies. The objectives of this study were to identify the perceived status of satisfaction on educational conditions and teaching-learning environment and associated factors of it among the public health undergraduates. This was the descriptive cross sectional study carried out among 384 undergraduate students of public health studying in final year/semester of three universities of Nepal using self administered questionnaire. The result of the study showed that satisfactions on various components are below than average. Among the satisfied components, the major were in case of duration of course (46.1%), teaching skills of part time teacher (39.1%), curriculum and overall course of study (36.2%), research/dissertation guidance (34.6%) and teaching skills of full time teacher (33.6%). The satisfaction level was least in case of result timing/procedure (14.1%), tuition fee (23.7%), examination procedure (26.3%) and evaluation system (27.1%). Ethnicity, educational background, course duration, types of teacher, availability of books in library and availability of research papers/journals were found associated with educational satisfaction. The study concluded low educational satisfaction among public health under graduate students. It is recommended to take immediate action for improvements of different components of education system like curriculum structure & contains, teaching methodology, teaching learning materials, admission and examination procedure.

Key words: Public health; Education; undergraduate course; satisfaction; Nepal