Resumen

KALLON, II; ESTERHUIZEN, TM; YOUNG, T  y  MCCAUL, M. A mixed-methods study of students' research assignments of a Master's in the clinical epidemiology programme. Afr. J. Health Prof. Educ. (Online) [online]. 2025, vol.17, n.2, pp.84-89. ISSN 2078-5127.  https://doi.org/10.7196/AJHPE.2025.v17i2.2424.

BACKGROUND: Evaluation of postgraduate programmes is limited in Africa, especially in the design of academic programmes and the breadth of a student's research and throughput. We reviewed students' research assignments and explored examiners' feedback on these assignments of a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology (MClinEpi) at Stellenbosch University. OBJECTIVES: To classify and describe the research of the MClinEpi students that they submitted for examination from 2008 to 2020, and to describe the contents of internal and external examiner feedback. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective, mixed-methods descriptive study of students' research submitted to examiners between 2008 and 2020 in two phases. The first phase included a quantitative description of the research topics, study designs and publications. The second phase was a quantitative and qualitative description of examiners' feedback. RESULTS: During the study period, 161 of a total of 193 (83%) students graduated. Over a third of the students (n=58, 36%) conducted research in infectious diseases, with about half (n=83, 53%) using cross-sectional study designs. Nearly half of the students (n=65, 41%) passed in the range of 60 - 69% and 84 (53%) published their research, mostly in international journals (n=60, 71.4%). From the review of the examiners' reports, students demonstrated adequate understanding of concepts and the literature, different levels of grasping the methodological approach and originality in selection of topics relevant to the local settings, but struggled to adequately discuss and summarise the findings of their study. CONCLUSION: The programme showed a consistently high pass rate and relatively successful publication rate. Further strengthening of the teaching and learning of research is imperative to drive successful output and competence among students. Dedicated formative assessments, driving research teaching and learning, can be implemented together with regular curriculum evaluations.

Palabras clave : Clinical epidemiology programme; research assignments; mixed-methods.

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