Association for Dental Education in Europe
ADEE
ADEE brings together a broad-based membership across Europe comprised of dental schools, specialist societies and national associations concerned with dental education.
ID: 224420913440-79
Lobbying Activity
6 Feb 2024
ADEE is a charitable organisation whose mission is the advancement of education and the promotion of the highest levels of health care for all people of Europe through its influence on the education and training of dental personnel. ADEE brings together over 175 member universities and allied associations with involvement in dental education programmes from more than 50 countries. We welcome any advancement in dental education, through the amendment of Directive 2005/36/EC, that reinforces the integrity of the profession, improves public confidence and enhances patient safety. As clearly communicated in our submissions to the consultation process including SPARK, ADEE welcomes the updating of Annex V to better reflect the subjects that most dental programmes already teach. However, we view it as a fundamental flaw to retain a subject driven focus for dental education, rather than an output focus that ensures delivery of competent professional practitioners as members of wider healthcare team. The fact that the Annex needed considerable overhaul reflects the rapid change and increasing sophistication of dental practice. ADEEs 2017 Graduating European Dentist framework is now widely accepted as the benchmark for curriculum development for dental schools in Europe. Recently, FEDCAR (Federation of European Dental Competent Authorities and Regulators) endorsed the Graduating European Dentist curriculum to its members, including candidate countries (FEDCAR2023). However, with the Directives focus on inputs rather than competency there remains considerable opportunity for lax interpretation of the act locally. This in turns leads to significant variability in the delivery of clinical education across the European OHP schools (Dixon et al 2024, p12). EU Member States have committed to use their healthcare and education resources to implement the WHO Action Plan for Global Oral Health (WHO 2023) and its vision for inter-professional community-based health services. Furthermore, Eaton, Yusuf & Vassallo (2023, p69) suggested that education of oral health professionals, including dentists, must be integrated with aligned curricula for health, allied health and oral health professionals. Mandating a list of subjects rather than professional behaviours (Patey et al 2023), competences and learning outcomes (Field et al 2017), or even entrustable professional activities (Ehlinger et al 2023), seems inadequate for current let alone future challenges, and simply reinforces a silo mentality among health professions, rather than enabling inter-professionalism. Internationally it is recognised that health professionals should experience a reflective and holistic education (WFME-BME). Given there is a noticeable trend in healthcare professional regulation towards models based on scope of practice, quality assurance, continual professional development, and high levels of professionalism and competence, the emphasis on a subject-based curriculum seems to give mixed signals to educators. ADEE cautions against a dilution of the principles underling the regulations that could lead to patient harm. Dental students themselves have noted with disquiet the divergent experience of education in different member states and have called for meaningful standards of clinical experience (EDSA 2016). ADEE members will continue to strive to set the cutting edge of dental curriculum development, not only with regards to the teaching of core subjects, but to meaningfully integrate them within curricula for optimal student learning and safe clinical practice. Reference list for cited material attached.
Read full responseResponse to Joint European degree
6 Feb 2024
ADEE is a charitable organisation whose mission is the advancement of education and the promotion of the highest levels of healthcare for all people of Europe through its influence on the education and training of dental personnel. ADEE brings together over 175 member universities and allied associations with involvement in dental education programmes from more than 50 countries. We welcome the development of joint degree structures that could lead to increased mobility of healthcare workers and improved public confidence in dental professionals. However, we do so cautiously when considering healthcare professions that are subject to national regulatory and quality assurance processes. The complexity of aligning these processes in some sectors may outweigh the benefits unless there is an EU-led programmatic approach to healthcare education. The education of healthcare professionals is influenced and regulated by a number of stakeholder groups, academic quality assurance mechanisms, professional regulation processes and, in some cases, professional body certification. Despite the work of bodies such as ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), as a nationally delegated competence, healthcare education is subject to very different processes and traditions in member states. For joint degrees to be successful in health professions requires an EU-wide programme accreditation framework, and professional regulations need to be aligned and streamlined, but ideally harmonised. Students needs clarity about the awarding authority, quality assurance and accreditations for their qualification. So too must the public have assurance that accredited healthcare qualifications at least meet recognised national standards. These must all be clearly defined, validated, and communicated if joint degrees are to become a value-added proposition. While there is currently a proposal to update the Annex of the Professional Qualifications Directive 2005/36 for dentists, as we have stated elsewhere this does little to ensure clinical competence of professionals (Dixon et al 2023). For example, dental degree duration can vary from 4 to 6 years but there is no required minimum amount of clinical contact time for students, or any requirement to demonstrate competence. The European Dental Students are on record of the need for standardisation of this diversity of approach to curriculum delivery (EDSA 2016). Many universities are now part of European university alliances and this has enabled considerable collaborative opportunities in the area of research and education. However, this has not yet led to any meaningful commonality in healthcare education, perhaps due to the complexities of regulation noted above. In practice many dental programmes have been unable to establish an Erasmus exchange model for their students that enables meaningful professional learning and practice. Universities without the support of alliances may find it even harder to adapt to future requirements. To conclude, we encourage the commission to ensure appropriate processes surrounding the certification, regulation and quality assurance of joint degrees is clearly defined and communicated with the public. While joint degrees may ultimately facilitate and improve mobility of dentists and offer better access to care for the public, for these to be effective requires the Professional Qualifications Directive to shift from an input based model to an emphasis on professional competence, continuous development and team-delivered primary care. References Dixon J, Tubert-Jeannin S, Davies J, et al. O-Health-Edu: A viewpoint into the current state of oral health professional education in Europe: Part 2: Curriculum structure, facilities, staffing and quality assurance. Eur J Dent Educ. 2024; 00: 1-14. doi:10.1111/eje.12987 European Dental Students Association (2016), Press release on Clinical practice in EU dental Schools accessed available at https://issuu
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