Dear Colleagues and Friends,
Since the last Dean's Update, the College team have been very busy working on everyone’s behalf to ensure the Dental Faculty remains contemporaneous in our offerings around the world.
On an international front we have been continuing our discussions with Bahrain, the Indian Dental Association, The Commonwealth Dental Association, Malaysia, The Nepalese Dental Association and the ACIIMS in Northern India. These fantastic new links will confirm that the RCSEd remains relevant and the first-choice educational centre for dentistry across the Globe.
To enhance these links, we can now confirm the dates of our first ever RCSEd World Dental Conference which will be held online on September 2nd, 3rd and 4th this year. If you can’t make those dates, the conference will be available to watch online for up to three months after the event. We have a very exciting programme of world class speakers and their presentations will address the whole range of dental care which is relevant to every member of the Dental family. We have set the fee structure to be very attractive for everyone, wherever they practice in the world. Reserve the date in your diary now and check out the advertisement for this exciting event.
At home in the UK there is light at the end of the tunnel as far as the pandemic is concerned. The fantastic uptake of vaccinations in the UK has shown rapid positive outcomes with the numbers of new cases falling, a reduction in those needing hospitalisation, and most importantly a significant fall in those losing their lives. This means we can look to be getting back to work but what will that look like in the future? We will be supporting you all through this process and look out for webinars on this important area for you all.
In the UK the devolved nations have made different decisions around final years qualifying this year. The Scottish Dental Schools have decided to delay qualification for at least another six months (Aberdeen) or a whole year (Glasgow and Dundee), whereas the English Schools are hoping to qualify their students by organising extra clinical sessions outside normal hours to make up for lost clinical training hours. This diverse approach has caused much consternation with the student body, and to support them we are offering them all free affiliation with us for one year.
Additionally, our Education Convenor, alongside our Dental Ambassadors are putting together a suite of lectures to help final year students prepare for exams. The lectures will be called ‘The Essentials of Dental Surgery’ and we will work on making them available online and via the College App. If any of the more senior members of the College are willing to give their ‘favourite’ undergraduate lecture online for this important venture, please contact Richard Cure (r.cure@rcsed.ac.uk) or Andrew Baldwin (ajbaldwin@doctors.org.uk).
This decision has a lot of knock-on effects for the new graduates not withstanding their futures in clinical practice and includes the immediate financial problems of extending their university degrees. There are the long-term issues around DF1 training places and in even the longer term their pension contributions. People wanting to enter universities are on hold and at the other end we need to consider the possible effects on specialty training posts as a consequence of this decision. This is not just going to affect this year but will be still relevant for a few years to come. Why not join in the discussions on this important subject in our hosted webinar on the 30th March entitled ‘Questions facing Dental Education – Qualification and training after COVID-19?’. Check out the College website for details of how to book your place.
I hope by the next Dean's Update I will be able to report that I have been allowed by the Scottish Government to go to Edinburgh for the first time since I was appointed Dean six months ago. This means we will be able to start to organise diploma ceremonies again and I have in front of me a large pile of Diploma certificates for signing. We can, at last, start to look forward to meeting with each other again and reignite the fellowship that makes our College so very special.
Stay safe and keep in touch, we are here to help.