This month the College held a diploma ceremony to welcome 82 diplomates into our global community of over 30,000 strong surgical and dental membership. Our diplomates travelled with their families and friends from across the world to celebrate a new stage in their career, as well as their hard work and dedication to surgical innovation.
On the day we had the pleasure to meet Farhana Fikri, a graduate from Universiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia, who had travelled to Edinburgh with her partner to receive her MFDS diploma. We spoke with her and learned that the event was of significant importance for her and her family, as she reminisced about attending her father's diploma ceremony for his FRCS at the College's Playfair Hall in 1999, when she was only a little girl.
23 years later, Farhana receives her MFDS diploma, and recreates the picture her dad took of her at the College, at his ceremony.
Now aged 29, Farhana was the last cohort to be able to sit for the exams physically before COVID hit, sitting her MFDS part 2 exam on 14 March 2020, only four days before our national lockdown.
Farhana's motivation to pursue a career in dental surgery was inspired by her parents' struggles to offer her and her sister the life they have now. She argues:
"They have demonstrated to me what it's like to have grit in everything you do. I aspire to be like them if not better, and hopefully make them proud one day."
Farhana is currently doing her Master's at King's College London and is undergoing training to become a Paediatric Dental Specialist. She plans to come back to the College in 2025 to sit for the Tri-Collegiate Membership in Paediatric Dentistry examination, and return a few months after that to receive her Diploma. Once she returns to Malaysia where her family has relocated, she is hoping to introduce new concepts to the paediatric dentistry practice in the private healthcare sector, and also contribute to ongoing efforts in restructuring the specialist pathways for Malaysian dentists.
We look forward to welcoming Farhana to the College again in the near future, as well as meeting our new diplomates at the ceremony next month and learning more about them and their stories.
To find out more about the RCSEd Faculty of Dental Surgery, visit our Faculty page.
