title: Assessment of dental student satisfaction with regard to process of thesis educational courses.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Ensuring achievement of research experience by students is one of the most important goals of the thesis-conduction process and evaluation of student satisfaction with this process is one of the most imperative challenges herein.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study is to investigate the satisfaction of dental students passing the thesis educational course from the Isfahan Dental School.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-two dental students who had graduated in2011, from the Isfahan Dental School, participated in this descriptive cross-sectional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  The postgraduate Research Experience Questionnaire (PREQ) was used for data collection. The questionnaire evaluated student satisfaction in seven domains: Thesis supervision, skill development, intellectual climate, infrastructure, thesis examination, goals and expectations, and overall satisfaction.
  
  
  METHODS
  The data were analyzed on an SPSS software using descriptive and inferential statistics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean score of satisfaction of the participants was 75 ± 12. On the basis of their scores, satisfaction in 3.2% of them was slow, in 33.9%was medium, in 61.3% was good and in 1.6% was high. The highest satisfaction was found to be in thesis supervision and the least was in the intellectual climate domain. There was no significant statistical difference between satisfaction and gender (P = 0.46).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Considering the results, to increase student satisfaction for passing the thesis courses, it is necessary to improve the intellectual climate in dental schools and also increase the research budget for more financial support of students to carry out their projects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Public Health, Torabinejad Research Center, School of Dentistry, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Faezeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Eslamipour
authors.affiliation: Dentist, Private Practice, School of Dentistry, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Noroozi
authors.affiliation: Torabinejad Research Center, School of Dentistry, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Kobra
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hosseinpour
keywords: Dental student; satisfaction; thesis