Plans To Open New Leicester Dental Teaching Academy Postponed
Plans to open the UK’s first private dental teaching academy in Leicester have been put on hold.
The Leicester Dental Teaching Academy was due to open this September, but the project has been put on hold. The University of Buckingham, which accredited the £175,000 course, confirmed that the academy would not in September as planned following discussions with the General Dental Council.
The GDC has to approve any dental course and a spokesman for the University of Buckingham said that it was necessary to ensure that all procedures have been followed in order to satisfy GDC criteria. The aim was to start the course in September, with classes taking place in the Phoenix Cinema until new premises were completed. A statement revealed that after negotiations with the GDC, it would not be possible to start the course in September. The plans have been postponed and representatives are currently negotiating a more suitable start date.
The decision to start the course off at the Phoenix Cinema proved controversial, with some members of the board from Leicester’s De Montfort University deciding to leave amid concerns about using the cinema. In minutes leaked from a board meeting, the two representatives raised concerns about the cinema’s partnership with the dental academy and said that they must act to protect the reputation of De Montfort University.
The plan was for students, who would pay a total of £175,000 for the course, to study at the Phoenix Cinema while work was completed on new premises adjacent to the building. However, it was confirmed that a planning application for the new academy had not been submitted and there is a degree of confusion regarding the future of the dental school.
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