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| AUTHOR’S REPLY |
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| Year : 2016 | Volume
: 60
| Issue : 3 | Page : 239-240 |
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Students' perception of quality of medical education in a medical college in West Bengal, India
Dipta Kanti Mukhopadhyay
Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
| Date of Web Publication | 24-Aug-2016 |
Correspondence Address:
v Dipta Kanti Mukhopadhyay
Lokepur, Near N.C.C. Office, Bankura - 722 102,West Bengal
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0019-557X.189035
How to cite this article:
Mukhopadhyay DK. Students' perception of quality of medical education in a medical college in West Bengal, India. Indian J Public Health 2016;60:239-40 |
How to cite this URL:
Mukhopadhyay DK. Students' perception of quality of medical education in a medical college in West Bengal, India. Indian J Public Health [serial online] 2016 [cited 2023 Mar 26];60:239-40. Available from: https://www.ijph.in/text.asp?2016/60/3/239/189035 |
Sir,
I profusely thank you for showing interest in the article on students' perception of quality of medical education. [1] As you have reported, it is of some value to the administrator/management of a medical college, but I feel that it is of much higher value to the medical teachers.
You have rightly mentioned that the objective of the study was to assess the expectation-perception gaps on five domains using the SERVQUAL model among medical students. It was also considered by the investigator that it would be interesting to note the views of the experienced medical teachers of the same college. Moreover, it would add to the validity evidences of the scale. Hence, a small number of teachers (n = 20) were included in the study, and their views were communicated. I feel that there is no conflict of interest between this finding and the objective or the validity of the study.
Examining construct validity evidences of the scale through exploratory factor analysis in the pilot study cannot be done with a small sample. I do not find any reason to believe that larger sample size was a limitation of the study.
It was mentioned in the "materials and methods" section that 2-year groups with 199 students were selected out of 5-year groups. Hence, nearly 500 students in those 5-year groups were the sampling frame.
Although the scale was validated previously in other settings, it was considered prudent to explore the factor structure in the present sociocultural setting which is different from the study setting where this scale was used before. When I started the work, I found no study from India which assessed the quality of medical education using the SERVQUAL model. I feel that the decision of considering exploratory factor analysis was an appropriate one in this study.
The responses of the students were collected in a 5-point Likert (ordinal) scale. Scores generated from an ordinal scale do not qualify as quantitative continuous data just for the large sample size (n = 179). It would not be prudent to use any parametric test here instead of Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
The domain-wise scores were tested for difference according to the demographic variables such as gender and year of study, and it was found that the difference was not significant. Hence, it was not communicated.
I found no factor loading <0.1. Even the presence would not have affected the outcome of the study as the highest factor loading was only considered in this study.
The total mean score of the scale adds very little logical information in the SERQUAL model. Rather, if we consider the domain- and item-wise gaps, we could take some concrete steps to enhance the quality of medical education even in the present sociocultural setting in India.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
 References | |  |
| 1. | Mukhopadhyay DK. Students' perception of quality of medical education in a medical college in West Bengal, India. Indian J Public Health 2016;60:4-9.  [ PUBMED]  |
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