Five-year trend of competitiveness and knowledge-gaining attitude of university students; Evaluation based on an event of continuing health sciences education

Fujio Takayama, Yoshiko Amikura, Sudhakar John, Vidyasagar Devaprasad Dedeepiya, Rajappa Senthilkumar, Govindan Venkataramani, Kottoorathu Mammen Cherian, Hajib Naraharirao Madhavan, David W Green, Masahiko Matsumoto, Shoji Suzuki, Masaru Iwasaki, Senthilkumar Preethy , Samuel JK Abraham

Abstract
Though the trend of competitiveness among students has been found to be declining recently, there are seldom reports analyzing the same among university students from biotechnology, life sciences, medicine, dentistry and veterinary sciences. The objective of the study was to analyze the trend of competitiveness of undergraduate and post-graduate students from a developing nation. This was done by a retrospective analysis of the data on participation of the students in a continuing health sciences education event that had both active knowledge-gaining (AKG) components such as quiz and passive knowledge-gaining components (PKG) such as plenary lectures as parts of the event conducted every year from 2006 to 2010 in that nation. The results showed a statistically significant linear trend in participation (p-value <0.0001) and a declining AKG event participation over the five years in a trend analytical comparison with PKG events’ participation which remained relatively stable over the years indicating a declining spirit of competitiveness. Further analysis into this declining trend revealed several pitfalls in the current education system of that nation. The findings raise alarms calling for the need to implement steps to modify the current education system, improve the attitude of the students and encourage them to participate in AKG events thereby developing a strong and more courageous younger generation, which will be able to optimally contribute to the society.

Key words: Educational activities, continuing education, medical education, dental education, veterinary education, educational needs assessment