Introduction of a New Standard Student-to-academic-staff Index and Its Evaluation in Mashad University of Medical Scinces

Background: in order to evaluate educational courses, usually different criteria of student and academic staff are being used. These criteria for students include their number, fields, the ratio of post-garaduate students to all students, and for staff, they are composed of their number, their rank in the academic pyramid, as well as the ratio of students to academic staff classified based on their academic degrees. Introducing a Standard student-to-academic-staff Index including all the above-mentioned factors can help rank these courses. Methods: A standard student-to-academic-staff Index is introduced based on the educational load of each and every student at different levels and the weekly length of time allocated to education or academic activity by each staff at a certain rank. The values of this index were calculated for students and staff of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, classified according to its faculties, and through the results of which, the educational status of the university and each faculty has been, thus, analysed in terms of the ratio of students to academic staff. Results: The educational status and the ratio of students to associate professors and professors in MUMS medical and dentistry faculties, using student-to-academic-staff Index, was determined to be very good. This status was considered quite good for the school of Pharmacy, no good for the schools of Nursing , Health and  Traditional medicine, and not acceptable for the Para-medical faculty. Conclusions: Using student-to-academic-staff Index, which takes into account the ratio of post-graduate students to all, can help rank the educational status of different faculties in order of very good, good, no good and not acceptable.The Standard student-to-academic-staff Index can also be used in the national project for educational ranking of universities (RAD).