Dentistry will remain a six-year programme
The Dutch dentistry programme will remain a six-year programme. The previous cabinet wanted to make it a five-year programme, but that plan has been cancelled. The three programmes in the Netherlands can celebrate, including the Amsterdam School of Dentistry Acta.
The plan of the previous ministers of Health, Welfare and Sport and Education, Culture and Science, D66 members Ernst Kuipers and Robbert Dijkgraaf, to shorten the dentistry programme from six to five years can be trashed, because this plan has been cancelled. The current Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport, Fleur Agema (PVV) and the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Eppo Bruins (NSC), have decided to maintain the six-year duration of the programme.
‘Extremely happy’
The previous cabinet saw shortening the programme from six to five years as a solution to free up money for 86 extra training places per year to counter the shortage of dentists. The current cabinet has backed down and chosen a different approach, much to the satisfaction of the training programmes themselves and the professional association KNMT, which says it is “extremely happy” with this outcome.
The issue has been debated for years because the training programmes were (of course) adamantly opposed to it. “We understand the major problem of the shortage of dentists, but based on our expertise as Acta, we think there are better solutions than shortening the programme, such as increasing the intake and training more foreign dentists,” said Etienne Verheijck, director of education at the Acta School of Dentistry. “This plan [to shorten the duration of the programme] seems to marginalise oral care even further,” (in Dutch). Acta – and the two other Schools of Dentistry in Nijmegen and Groningen – were supported in this by the findings of an independent committee that had previously investigated shortening the programme (in Dutch).
31 additional training places
The new ministers of Health, Welfare and Sport and Education, Culture and Science have a different opinion to their predecessors: Agema and Bruins are maintaining the duration of the training programme and yet are creating more training places: not 86, but 31. They base this decision on the above-mentioned study, among other things. They also believe that the initially intended expansion of 86 places can only be introduced in eight years' time – in the 2013/2014 academic year – because the process of amending the law takes so long.
The ministries have now opted to maintain the six-year duration of the study programme. The expansion with 31 additional training places will take place in two stages: 26 additional places starting in the coming academic year and another 5 additional places starting in the academic year 26|27. At the end of this calendar year, a decision will be made on whether additional expansion is necessary and financially feasible.
