title: Assessment of educational criteria in academic promotion: Perspectives of faculty members of medical sciences universities in Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  One of the important criteria in the promotion of faculty members is in the scope of their educational roles and duties. The purpose of this study was the assessment of reasonability and attainability of educational criteria for scientific rank promotion from the perspective of the faculty members of Medical Sciences Universities in Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  This descriptive study was conducted in 2011 in 13 Universities of Medical Sciences in Iran. Through stratified sampling method, 350 faculty members were recruited. A questionnaire developed by the researchers was used to investigate the reasonability and attainability of educational criteria with scores from 1 to 5. The self-administered questionnaire was distributed and collected at each university. The mean and standard deviation of reasonability and attainability scores were calculated and reported by using the SPSS software version 16.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Faculty members considered many criteria of educational activities reasonable and available (with a mean score of more than 3). The highest reasonability and attainability have been obtained by the quantity and quality of teaching with the mean scores (3.93 ± 1.15 and 3.82 ± 1.17) and (3.9 ± 1.22 and 4.13 ± 1.06) out of five, respectively. The mean and standard deviation of total scores of reasonability of educational activities were 50.91 ± 14.22 and its attainability was 60.3 ± 13.72 from the total score of 90.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The faculty members of the Universities of Medical Sciences in Iran considered the educational criteria of promotion moderately reasonable and achievable. It is recommended to revise these criteria and adapt them according to the mission and special conditions of medical universities. Furthermore, providing feedback of evaluations, running educational researches, and implementing faculty development programs are suggested.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Surgical, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Mina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tootoonchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, Medical Education Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Nikoo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamani
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, Medical Education Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Tahereh
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Changiz
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Surgical, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Fariba
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Taleghani
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Mohammadzadeh
keywords: Academic promotion; Iran; criteria; education; faculty member; universities of medical sciences