A STUDY OF AHVAZ JUNDISHAPUR UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES DENTAL STUDENTS’ INTEREST TO PURSUING A SPECIALTY ACCORDING TO THEIR DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION Abdolreza Gilavand

Today, the changes in the expectations of the society from the dentists and the need for higher quality dental services have renewed the interests of people to pursue their education in the field of dental sciences. This study has tried to examine the degree of the students' interest at Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences (AJUMS) to Pursuing a Specialty in the field of dental sciences according to their demographic data. This study is descriptive-analytical and has used a cross-sectional method of analysis during March 2015. The research population includes 484 of Professional Doctorate| (General) of dentistry students in the field of dental sciences at the university. Sampling was done by survey and questionnaire. Among all the students, 118 from the Faculty of Dental Sciences (tuition-free) and 58 from the Campus Unit (tuition-based) completed the questionnaire. To analyze the data descriptive statistics, frequency, frequency percentage, Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, and nonparametric mean comparison of Matt-Whitney U test in the SPSS software, version.21 were used. This study showed that 59% of the students are interested to continue their education (2.36±1.08). No significant difference between the students of the Faculty of Dental Sciences and Campus Unit (P=0.870) and between female and male students (P=0.291) was seen. The most important reasons include, achieving a better economic position, finding a better job, and having a better social status. The reasons for the lack of interest to pursue education include boredom and exhaustion, problems caused by the comprehensive exam, and employment immediately after graduation. Keywords: Dental Sciences, Pursuing a Specialty, University, Students, AJUMS