Dental College under Review Following Inspection
Queen’s University Belfast Dental School has been inspected by the General Dental Council due to a number of reported concerns regarding an insubstantial use of resources being given to teaching dentistry.
The inspection was taken after a number of concerns were addressed to the General Dental Council, which lead to the chief executive and registrar of the GDC contacting the vice chancellor of Queen’s University regarding the lack of resources granted to dentistry.
While the issue seems serious, the university is insisting the inspection is nothing unusual. A spokesperson was stated as saying: “We can confirm that the General Dental Council undertook an inspection as is normal every four to five years. We are awaiting the report.”
The inspection in question was carried out in May of this year and Queen’s University Belfast is now nervously awaiting the verdict from the inspectors which will be available in August 2011 on the General Dental Council’s website.
If the report finds the school has made inadequate use of resources and does not reach the quality of teaching the GDC expects (another issue that was brought up which lead to the inspection) the school, which is the only dental training university in Northern Ireland, could see its teaching license taken away.
This threat to the school will come as a significant shock to the university as only three short years ago it was named as the top course in the University League Tables for the Times Good University Guide. Following the knowledge of the report three years ago, Professor Paddy Johnston, who was Dean of the School at the time, gave a statement which promised continued hard work with research and resources at the forefront of the school’s mind: “This is a wonderful achievement by my dental colleagues, especially as we drive towards the development of an international research-led dental school in the next few years.”
Leading up to the outcome of the inspection, the school will be hoping for a second chance in order to bring the school back up to the stellar level of teaching it was achieving just three years ago.
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