Dental Education University of Cambridge

Overview

The Dental Education Postgraduate Diploma at University of Cambridge reflects the increasing emphasis placed on educational and educational-leadership roles. It builds upon the Postgraduate Certificate in Dental Education and enables students who have successfully completed it to convert their certificate to a diploma. 

This is a one-year, part-time course, leading to the qualification of Postgraduate Diploma in Dental Education. Teaching is a blend of in-person contact days at The University of Cambridge, and online synchronous/asynchronous engagement.  

This programme is designed for all dentists and dental professionals involved in undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing dental education. The programme is only open to those who have successfully completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Dental Education at PACE, which is the first year of the pathway.

This postgraduate diploma is aimed at those who currently have or aspire to have educational roles in dentistry, including: 

• educational supervisors 
• clinical supervisors 
• training programme directors 
• dental deans 
• directors of dental education  
• continuing professional development providers 

The programme is open to: 

• dentists  
• dental nurses 
• dental therapists  
• dental hygienists  
• dental technicians  
• dental specialists 
• dental specialist core trainees 
• consultants 
• academic dental staff   

The course is suitable both for those based in the UK, and worldwide.  The University of Cambridge is a member of the Association of Dental Education in Europe.  

Aims of the programme 

The programme's aims are to: 

• develop individuals’ ability to adopt an informed and critically reflective stance to their own and others’ practice as dental educators and leaders 
• invite consideration of strategies to create and sustain safe working and learning environments, including supporting and developing faculty to deliver high-quality dental education and training 
• establish the features of high-quality formative and summative assessment practices and how these are used to assess performance and support the development of learners, foundation programme participants and trainees (including differentiation of performance and supporting trainees who are failing to progress) 
• support a focus on curriculum and course design at two levels i.e. firstly, to enable an informed critique of adopted curriculum, their limits and potentials and secondly to familiarise participants with core curriculum design skills  

Learning outcomes

By the end of the programme, students will be able to demonstrate the following:  

• a critical appreciation of the ways in which dental learning and practice are conceptualised and how this is reflected in curriculum design and implementation decisions, including assessment strategies 
• learner- and patient-centred approaches to dental education, training and assessment, that are appropriately aligned to relevant professional curricula and standards 
• the ability to purposefully draw upon a range of educational theories and concepts, as a basis for analysing and enhancing approaches to dental education and training 
• the ability to propose novel approaches to the development of their own and/or others educational practice, in the response to changing circumstances and/or needs