The Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is committed to providing the best possible examinations and assessments to candidates. Any proposed alterations to any aspect of an exam whether online or face-to-face are first measured against our three principles:
- That no candidate (past, present or future) will be advantaged or disadvantaged
- That ‘the standard is the standard’ and will not be diminished
- That patient safety is paramount; no candidate should pass, who would ordinarily have failed
Since 1 September, the College has run face-to-face examination diets in London and in Edinburgh for over 300 candidates without incident and all under the strictest of Covid-19 protocols. RCSEd, along with the other surgical Royal Colleges, will be running MRCS Part B exams face-to-face over the next two weeks across the UK. Nonetheless, RCSEd is actively investigating online or remote delivery solutions to add to its suite of examination offerings and to offer a contingency plan for future face-to-face exams which may be postponed due to local lockdowns.
RCSEd has instigated a short life working group to scrutinise the published evidence in a rapid review of the literature on the effects of online examination delivery on candidates and the examiners, with specific remit to satisfy the needs of the RCSEd in maintaining standards. We will from that evidence base, work with selected providers to develop an online, remotely-delivered examination platform to our specifications.
We owe it to our candidates to provide a qualification which is universally accepted and respected.