Eight-year evaluation of dental public health students' research using balanced scorecard - Retrospective study

Measuring the performance of dental schools in the research area has always been challenging. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a performance measurement tool with four perspectives that balance financial and non-financial performance indicators. Some medical colleges use BSC for performance measurement of all departments' activities while others use it in some sections or departments. This study is the first in the dental education field to use the BSC approach to assess the performance measurement of dental students' research projects.

A self-developed BSC was designed by the staff members at the dental public health department to reflect the educational strategies and objectives of the department; all data on dental public health students' research from 2013/2014 to 2020/2021 were collected from the dental public health department, Dental Clinics Complex (DCC) files as well as databases of the Quality Assurance Unit to cover the basic four balanced perspectives.

Data from the four perspectives were introduced to Balanced Scorecard Pro Software Version 4.7.1.20. The resulting balanced scorecard indicated that the overall performance of students' research activities was 89.38%. The learning and growth perspective showed the highest performance (95.33%) followed by the financial perspective (92.5%) then the internal process perspective (89.55%) while the customer perspective showed the lowest performance (82.19%).

BSC is an efficient tool for the measurement of the performance of the departments at medical colleges. Our process is highly adaptable and can be easily implemented by any section, or institution looking to advance its educational mission and vision.