Introduction to Assessing Quality in Higher Medical Education in Iran: challenges and perspectives

With growing desire to make higher education systems more effective and efficient, the policy of evaluating tertiary institutions has been intensified in developed, as well as developing, countries. Based on this, this article argues that quality assessment of total university systems in Iran has been a sporadic activity in the past. However, recent attempts in self‐evaluation of higher medical education have brought a positive attitude towards continuous quality improvement in Iranian higher medical education. This article presents a brief description of the context of higher education system in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and then describes a pilot self‐evaluation project which has been carried out since 1995 at the medical sciences universities. Finally, the process and product of this project in continuous improvement of the quality of higher medical education are analysed.