What 'really' affects health professions students' satisfaction with their educational experience? Implications for practice and research.

Student satisfaction has been widely recognised as an indicator of the quality of the students' learning and teaching experience. The aim of the study was to explore the extent to which student satisfaction is influenced by 13 demographic- and educational-related variables. A cross-sectional survey was undertaken (18-item questionnaire, 1660 questionnaires). Principal component analysis categorised the 18 items into four learning and teaching dimensions. Each of the 13 variables was analysed for its influence on student satisfaction generally and on the four dimensions individually, before and after controlling for all the other variables. After controlling for all the variables, none of the demographic characteristics was associated with satisfaction. Most of the educational variables exercised their own independent and significant effects on general satisfaction and on satisfaction with the four individual dimensions. Collectively, decreased satisfaction was associated with being a pre registration, full-time student, usually with A level entry qualifications, attending term two modules whose assessment/s comprised combined strategies. Decreased satisfaction was also significantly associated with larger class sizes as regards the student numbers and with attaining lower grades in the assessments. The demographic variables were not as influential as the educational ones as regards the affects on students' satisfaction. The implications of the findings for research and practice are discussed.