First report on structure and function of Educational research; Development Centers in Iranian medical universities

Introduction. quality improvement in education is one of the aims of "3rd Five-year program of development" and Iranian Medical Educational Research & Development Centers (EDC) are founded for this reason. So it is obvious that, in our universities, this policy should be performed by these centers. This study was done, because there wasn't regular data collection system previously in order to establish the first data gathering system. Methods. A questionnaire was designed after studying available references about EDCs and after final corrections, distributed in a meeting participated by managers of EDCs on 15.3.79. The received data were gathered in 2nd half of 1379 and summarized in a new format. Results. Shiraz University had the oldest Center and Qom had the youngest one. Four hundred forty one faculty members were employed in all these centers. Four physicians, 17 clinical specialists, 6 PhDs, 7 M.S degrees, 2 master of educations and 3 unknown degrees managed these centers. Faculty members of 14 centers hadn't passed any educational training program. Five centers hadn't performed Teacher Training program and nine ones hadn't done Research in Education. Six centers hadn't evaluated their educational programs. Seven centers hadn't published any publication since the beginning. Conclusion. The EDC has been established in all Iranian Medical Sciences universities until 1379(39 centers). These centers usually started with Teacher Training program. Mainly, personnel of EDCs were faculty member and worked part-time there. Large universities were not only able to perform their own duties but also could support other small centers. As the information sent by different centers didn’t have the same standard criteria , it isn't possible to compare these results.