Educational Environment in Public and Private Medical Colleges of Peshawar: Undergraduate Medical Students’ Perception

Abstract

Objective: The objective of our study was to explore student’s perception of the educational environment in their respective medical colleges
 Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at two medical colleges (one public sector and one private-sector medical college), both affiliated with Khyber Medical University, Peshawar from January 2020 to March 2020. DREEM was used to measure the educational environment of both public sector and private sector medical colleges.
 Results: The overall mean score with standard deviation was 113± 22 SD for private medical college and 109 ± 25 SD for public sector medical college, which means more positive than negative perception. Private sector college overall score was better than public sector college but with no significant difference. Private sector medical college score was better in all DREEM subscales except Students’ Academic Self-Perception in which public college scored 18± 5 and private college scored 16± 5.
 Conclusion: There is a significant margin for improvement for all domains of the educational environment in both public and private sector medical colleges, especially the low scores in the domain of Students’ Social Self Perceptions need attention.