Fogorvosi szemle, 2005 (98. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

2005-09-01 / Supplementum

FOGORVOSI SZEMLE ■ 98. évf. Supplementum, 2005.19-21.

Association for Dental Education in Europe, Dublin, Ireland

Dental Education in Europe, ongoing developments

DR. PLASSCHAERT, ALPHONS JM PRESIDENT OF THE ADEE

Some of the recent developments in dental education in Europe are described. The Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE) has grown into a professional organization comprising more than 130 dental schools as members with a central office in Dublin. Also the DentEd projects have contributed significantly to develop a coherent network of dental schools and a site-visitation for peer review. ADEE and DentEd are now merging, and activities are ongoing to further harmonize dental education in the areas of curriculum structure, ECTS, benchmarking and quality assurance. For the first time the integration of DentEd and ADEE is now the basis for all EU dental schools to adhere to an agreed set of outcomes in competences and learning units with a global perspective on agreed dental education objectives-without interfering with diversity in educational approaches and also ensuring sustainable developments in convergence towards higher standards and quality assurance.

Key words: ADEE, dental education, DentEd

Introduction

First of all let me convey sincere congratulations from the European Dental School Community to Semmelweis University Dental School at the occasion of celebrating its 50 years Jubilee. It is not so much the years that count, it is more the prestige that has been built up by renowned professors, teachers and researchers from this school, that has played such an important role in the history of dental education in and beyond Europe. I would like to express my gratitude to be invited to participate in this ceremonial event. In some of the lectures today we will learn more about the rich history of this dental school. Let me share with you in the limited time allotted, some of the recent developments in Europe and the European Community more specifically.

Dental education in the past

Modern Dental Education began in the USA where the First School of Dentistry started in Baltimore in 1840. The first European countries that introduced independent dental curricula were the United Kingdom (1859), Finland (1880), Switzerland (1881) and Russia (1891). However, many countries, in the southern and eastern countries of Europe, kept the link between the studies of Medicine and Dentistry, these dental studies (Stomatology) were a medical speciality, undertaken after medical graduation. This difference in dental education has, however, changed in the last 30 years due to the introduction in Europe of measures leading to harmonization in higher education studies.

With the goal of harmonizing the different professional degrees, the European community created the so-called Link Committees (Committés de Liaison) that developed sectorial directives for all the health sector professions in all member states. In 1978 the dental directives were published and an independent dental degree based on a curriculum of five years duration was defined. The EC established a council representing all member states “The Advisory Committee for the training of dental practitioners’’ (ACTDP) aimed to advise the EC on further curricular development. The ACTDP produced a document on Core Knowledge and Understanding as a prerequisite to achieve the Clinical Competences (XV/E/8316/ 8/93)-a guideline for Europe, further defining the minimum standards needed, both in curricular content and in learning objectives and competences in dental education. Although it lacked compulsory status, this document has been very important in the development of most of the still existing dental curricula.

KEE

Promoting Dental Education in Europe