Internal Evaluation of the Department of Occupational Health and Safety Engineering, of the School of Health in Qom University of Medical Sciences, 2018, (Iran)

Background and Objectives: Despite the quantitative growth of higher education, it had no proportional growth in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and quality. Therefore, academic centers should monitor their performance quality, and accordingly take action for the improvement of their status and standardization. The purpose of this study was to identify strengths and weaknesses of the Department of occupational health and safety Engineering based on the data of internal evaluation in 2018.   Methods: This study was carried out as a descriptive - analytical cross - sectional study. Required information was collected from the department head, faculty members, all students, graduates, and officials and administrative personnel of the faculty using observation, interview, and valid questionnaires and checklist. There were 14 factors, 96 criteria, and 266 markers in this study. Score of 1 to 1.66 was considered as undesirable, 1.67 to 2.32 as relatively desirable, and 2.33 to 3 as desirable. The data were analyzed by descriptive and one way ANOVA tests.   Results: In this study, the overall status of the department was desirable with the score of 2.39. Eight factors were desirable and the rest were relatively desirable. Among which, mission and educational goals factor had the highest score (2.85) the library factor had the lowest score (1.95).   Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, the status of the department was evaluated as desirable. Thus, desirable total score does not mean that there is no need for sustainable development or improvement of the current conditions, and It seems that there is a need for improvement in factors, such as attempt to update the courses to meet the need of the labor market as well as standardization of educational spaces.