Survey to be conducted on - Competency of Dental Graduates & Institutions
The study is funded by HEC and conducted by University of Faisalabad
With the exponential increase in annual entries and graduates passing out of the Dental Colleges, over the recent years, a need was felt for an evaluative study to gauge the performance of the institutions and the competency of the Graduates in Pakistan. This evaluative study will help in enhancing the administrative, clinical and technical skills of the faculty and educational system, while ensuring better learning experiences for the students in the institutions. There is also a need to probe the shortage and inadequacy of teaching faculties in the increasing number of dental institutions.
Thus, a thorough evaluation of the whole dental education programme is being planned and conducted. As part of this project, special symposiums of dental college principals will be held in Lahore and Karachi. The events will also be attended by the representatives of PMDC and HEC.
The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and Higher Education Commission (HEC) have clearly defined the Dental Education Standards, which are being only partially adopted by the institutions in many cases. The evaluation will help the regulatory bodies to improve the standards to meet the national and global challenges of the future.
The survey will gather data on evaluation of Competency of dental graduates, performance of dental faculty and training facilities provided by the dental colleges. The Dental graduates of different colleges will give their input and perceptions on the quality of under-graduate Dental education in Pakistan. It will see, whether the curriculum is rich enough to turn the graduates into well-trained and independent dental practitioners.
The HEC has emphasized the universities and Dental Institutions to focus on quality of faculty, infrastructure, research-based learning environment, modern curriculum and strict examination methods. To help achieve these objectives, the survey will assess the learning ability of graduates and teaching capacity of faculty to meet higher learning outcomes. By recording the opinions of new graduates, this study will highlight the learning needs of the newly qualified dentists and the relevance of the under-graduate education with their working practice.
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