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University of Medical Sciences (MNUMS) plays a leading role in the association,
as it introduced the block integrated undergraduate medical curriculum (from
Groningen University, Netherlands, through the Tempus/Tacis project of the
European Union in 2000), which became a turning point of medical education
research in Mongolia. Since 2007, the association has been publishing its own
biannual journal, Medical Education, which includes research articles related to
medical education (112 articles in 5 volumes), with the majority of the articles being
on curriculum development and educational management.
Of all 380 publications related to higher education research mentioned above,
197 articles examined the common problems of higher education, such as educational
policy, capacity building, faculty development, learning methods, and environment
regarding the subject matter. Outstanding topics are more specific, for example, 61
articles were on medical education, 33 were on technical education, 20 were on
social science, and 14 articles were on utilization of information technology.
State-owned universities play a key role in higher education research; written
dissertations were primarily reviewed, discussed, and approved by the academic
board of the MNUE, the MUST, the MNUMS, the NUM, and the Mongolian
University of the Humanities. In order to study in depth, 73 dissertations out of
81 in the MFST database, related to higher education research, were analyzed,
because 8 dissertations were written based on foreign data. Among 73 dissertations
reviewed, 87% were conducted in the abovementioned universities. Two research
designs were used in these studies: pre-experimental and true experimental designs
(Tuckman, 1999). The majority of studies (54.3%) used the pre-experimental
design, which includes the one-shot case study and one-group pretest-posttest
designs. The true experimental design, which includes a posttest-only control group
and a pretest-posttest control group, was used in 35.6% of studies. Row data collec-
tion methods were divided into quantitative, qualitative, and mixed. Quantitative
and qualitative methods were separately used for data collection in 34.1% of stud-
ies, but the majority (65.8%) used both methods together. In their conclusions and
recommendations, the study authors primarily stated the need to improve education
management and human resource development (35.5%), training methods (31.5%),
and content (19.7%).
Conclusion
Higher education research is currently in its initial stage of development. Its role as
a field of science, in planning for future actions, in evaluating results and outcomes
of interventions and changes in higher education, and in providing policy developers
and decision-makers with scientific evidence, is increasing. Reforms and innovations
in higher education are becoming more quality than quantity oriented, and further
studies would help to illustrate the link between, and effects of, higher education
reform and quality of education. Some themes and topics (e.g., management of
private and international joint universities, analysis of demand and supply of some
N. Sumberzul and S. Oyunbileg