Education sector
We are committed to ensuring our quality assurance of dental education and training fulfils our purpose. How we run our inspections and how we judge whether a course is sufficient for GDC registration can be found in these documents:
How we check the quality of dental education and training - A guide for course providers and awarding bodies (220KB, PDF)
How we check the quality of dental education and training - A guide for patients (221KB, PDF)
Course providers and awarding bodies
Contact the Quality Assurance Team on 020 7344 3746 or QualityAssurance@gdc-uk.org for guidance on how to submit a proposal for a new programme or award.
If you make a submission to start a new course or award, you must complete a curriculum mapping table for that subject. A curriculum mapping table contains all the Learning Outcomes for a registered profession from the publication Preparing for Practice. The mapping table requires the education provider to specify where each outcome will be taught and where and how that outcome will be assessed in the proposed programme.
Dentistry mapping table (218KB, Word)
Dental nursing mapping table (174 KB, Word)
Dental hygiene mapping table (213KB, Word)
Dental therapy mapping table (224KB, Word)
Dental technology mapping table (167KB, Word)
Clinical dental technology mapping table (185KB, Word)
Orthodontic therapy mapping table (175KB, Word)
The system for quality assuring education programmes and awards at the GDC is currently in a transitional period. In 2012 new standards for education and revisions to the operational process will be implemented.
Dental schools visitation programme
We visited all UK dental schools during 2003 - 2005 to report on their provision of BDS/BChD programmes. The report highlights the GDC's key findings from the quality assurance visits to the schools. It identifies examples of good educational practice and also makes recommendations for further developing the delivery of dental education.
Recent inspections
We quality assure existing and new courses leading to registration for both dentists and DCPs. We do this through an annual monitoring exercise and inspections. When we carry out an inspection, our inspectors produce reports on their findings. You can find these reports on the programme and qualification pages for each profession:
Find out about the education inspectors