Quality assurance procedures in assessment - a descriptive study of medical colleges in Pakistan

To identify the quality assurance procedures being implemented in the assessment system of medical colleges in Pakistan.

The cross-sectional study was conducted from March 2015 to December 2017 in medical training institutions recognised by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council across Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and comprised individuals designated by the respective institutional administrations. The mixed method technique was employed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Data was analysed using SPSS 21.

Of the 49 institutions, 20(41%) were in the public sector and 29(59%) were in the private sector. Overall, 35(71.4%) institutions followed a written assessment policy provided by the affiliated university, 9(18%) never did so, 22(44.8 %) had content experts checking if the questions matched the objectives, 42(85.7%) took strict steps to prevent cheating in exams, and 26(53.1%) analysed theory exam statistically. Discrimination index, difficulty index, reliability, and point biserial were 14(28.6%), 13(26.5%), 12(24.4%), and 7(14.3%) of the medical colleges respectively. Only 12(24.5%) institutions provided written feedback on the results, and 15(30.6%) conducted annual internal audit.

General issues related to quality assurance procedures in assessments were found to be in place in majority of the colleges. However, a large proportion did not have them.