A Comparative Appraisal of Timings for Program Evaluation Survey and Related Institutional Results in Saudi Arabia: Quality Management in Higher Education

Abstract

The periodic evaluation of academic programs is mandatory for quality management in higher education world-wide. This paper reports a unique setting in which each student performed two such evaluations using structured question-naires, viz.:(a) “Student Experience Survey” (SES) for their learning experience halfway through their academic pro-gram, and (b) “Program Evaluation Survey” (PES) at end of the program. A comparative appraisal of these two sets of data from students doing the Bachelor of Dental Surgery, College of Dentistry, University of Dammam, Saudi Arabia, aims to see if it is valid to generalize the observed related differentials in Saudi Arabia. The percentage of students’ participation was 100% in both SES and PES. In the students’ perceived cumulative experience, none of the total 20 items in SES was reported to be of either “high” or “acceptable” quality. By contrast, in the PES, one of the 13 items common to both questionnaires was reported to be of “high quality (“what I have learnt in this program will be valu-able for future”)”. Again, one of nine additional items in PES (“Developed knowledge & skill for my chosen career”) emerged to be of acceptable quality. In summary, irrespective of timing for PES, the results suggest the need of im-provements in relation to almost every item confirming ongoing developmental phase.