A Call to Enhance Transparency Among Egyptian Medical Schools

Abstract

Background: Transparency in providing information in higher education became a very important and basic matter especially after internationalization of medical education. The Egyptian Society for Medical Education (ESME) aspires that Egyptian medical schools would work more towards transparency and openness for greater effective feedback. Literature review revealed almost zero results related to the transparency situation in Egyptian medical schools. Methods: This study was carried out to estimate the transparency of medical schools’ websites information concerning their accreditation process through reviewing forty Egyptian medical schools’ official websites, as well as through the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education (NAQAAE) website searching for two major transparency criteria. Each criterion was further subdivided into several information elements. Data were registered and analyzed using the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap). Authors excluded, from data analysis, the newly established schools that are less than five years which were not obliged to apply for accreditation yet. Results: Research results showed that only thirteen colleges recorded being accredited on their websites; however very limited amount of data was available about the process, dates, and documents. The accreditation information of these thirteen schools was confirmed by information on NAQAAE website. Other information concerning other important elements such as accountability and future plans were almost completely missing. Conclusion: Authors concluded that due to lack of essential information on the Egyptian medical schools' websites about their institutional accreditation situation, serious steps should be taken from both the medical schools and the national accrediting body to encourage the openness and to ensure the transparency towards the accreditation process and results in Egypt.

Multifarious methods in the pursuit of quality: More “ands” and fewer “ors”

“…Two related issues touched on in these articles could benefit from further exploration, including accreditation's role in increasing public availability of information and how quality assurance information is used, or not used, to evaluate institutions for the purpose of gatekeeping of international medical graduates (IMGs) throughout the world. Many accreditation systems and the WFME Recognition Program strive, albeit with some limited success, [5][6][7] to increase the amount and public availability of information on educational institutions so students can make informed choices. Just as the United States is only one of two countries (the other being New Zealand) that allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise regulated drugs directly to consumers, the medical education field in this country is encumbered by commercials for educational institutions with potentially misleading or incomplete information on the quality of education delivered, student success, and practice opportunities for physician graduates.…”