EVALUATION OF EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS IN A DENTISTRY FACULTY FROM THE STUDENTS PERSPECTIVE

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the educational environment at Erciyes University Faculty of Dentistry from the students' perspective using a survey. Methods: The study was conducted at Erciyes University Faculty of Dentistry. 375 undergraduate students (217 female, 158 male) answered the 24-questions survey via Google Survey. The survey started with a section on demographic information and proceeded with questions about the students' educational status in theoretical courses, focusing on their satisfaction levels regarding access to academic staff, exam question assessments, and resource sharing by academic staff. A 5- level Likert scale was used in the survey and Pearson Chi-Square test was applied to the data for statistical analysis. (p=0.05) (SPSS 22.0). Results: Evaluation of satisfaction levels regarding access to academic staff for theoretical courses revealed no statistical difference according to gender (p=0.132) or academic year (p=0.057). 7.5% of the students rated resource sharing by academic staff as 1 on the Likert scale, while 30.9% rated it as 4. On assessments of exam questions the frequency of level 1 satisfaction among 5th-year students was higher than that of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-year students indicating that they were less satisfied. Additionally, the frequency of level 2 satisfaction among 4th-year students was higher than that of 3rd-year students suggesting that 4th-year students were less satisfied than 3rd-year students. (p=0.000922) Conclusion: Ensuring that students have easy access to academic staff and that academic staff share resources is a key factor in improving the quality of education. Keywords: faculty of dentistry, students, education conditions