Research in Medicine

Introduction: Students are the main clients for educational system and their opinions can improve service quality. Thus determination of educational gap based on their viewpoints can trigger quality promotion programs. This project was performed to evaluate educational service quality based on Mashhad medical students' viewpoints. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 216 medical students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in 2015. Multi stage random sampling method was used to gather post third grade students. The evaluation tool was the standardized SERVQUAL questionnaire which had demographic (4 questions) and 27 paired question for measuring service quality in 5 dimensions: Assurance, Accountability, Empathy, Confidence and Physical with 5 point Likert scale. SPSS 22 with p<0.05 was used for data analyses. Results: Mean age was 22.7±2.9 years. Sixty four percent (139) were female. There were significant differences between desired and existing situation in all items and dimensions. Total service gap was -0.98±0.50 out of which accountability had the highest (-1.22±0.74) and physical had the lowest (-0.79±0.62) educational gap. Gender, educational level and students' situation were not related to educational gap. Conclusion: Negative gap in all dimensions of educational services shows that students' expectations are not met. Some of these gaps can be easily disappeared by proper management and reconstruction of presenting services.