- The Foundation for Advanced Studies in Health Sciences (FESS) will offer these five-year courses initially with 60 places available
- The aim is to train dentists with the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to work in a constantly changing profession
- The new degrees in Dentistry and General Audiology have the required level of quality due to the experience gained with the degree in Medicine, from which the first cohort will graduate this year. This experience has created strong academic and management teams
In Western societies, over 50% of the population has some form of oral disease. In recent decades, the population’s interest in oral health and hygiene has been on the rise and prevention, detection and intervention programmes in this field are increasingly promoted. However, Catalan society must lead the challenge of addressing iniquity in access to dental care due to age and/or income, and the challenge of innovation in dental care. In this context, the demand for higher studies in Dentistry has been increasing. The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Vic - Universitat Central de Catalunya (UVic-UCC), which is aware of this need, will begin teaching the degree in Dentistry from academic year 2023-2024. This degree adds to the current degrees in Medicine and General Audiology. The new degree will have a duration of 5 academic years and consist of 300 ECTS. Sixty places will be offered in face-to-face mode.
Catalan society must lead the challenge of addressing iniquity in access to dental care due to age and/or income, and the challenge of innovation in dental care
The Foundation for Advanced Studies in Health Sciences (FESS), the owner of the Faculty of Medicine, is committed to these studies, whose aim is to train highly qualified professionals who can join public and private clinical practice health centres. The course will be taught at the UVic-UCC Medicine Campus: the first three years in Vic, at the Faculty of Medicine, and the last two, in Manresa. Marina Geli, general director of FESS, stated that "the new degree in Dentistry is the result of federation agreements between Vic and Manresa to create the UVic-UCC and the FESS.” She explained: “just like the degree in Medicine and the Institute for Research and Innovation in Life and Health Sciences in Central Catalonia (IRIS-CC), Dentistry is a territorial project and, at the same time, one with international reach.”
More than a thousand hours of practice
In the training of UVic-UCC’s future dentists, practicums will play a major role. They will be carried out with real patients and will add up to around 1,100 hours, a figure higher than that of other universities that teach the degree in Dentistry. The practicums will take place in several health centres, mainly in the University Clinic of the Bages University Foundation (COU+) and in the new dental and maxillofacial surgery clinic of the Santa Creu de Vic University Hospital, which will be started up in the context of the new degree.
As part of the subjects that comprise the degree, students will spend time in community dentistry services of primary care centres in central Catalonia, in dental clinics with specialized units, and in other collaborating health centres that have dentistry services with which the University has signed practicum agreements.
Practicums will be carried out with real patients and will add up to around 1,100 hours, a figure higher than that of other universities that teach the degree in Dentistry
New spaces
The launch of the degrees in Dentistry and General Audiology coincides with an expansion of the spaces for classrooms and laboratories of the Faculty of Medicine by 1,500 m2. Thus, in the new academic year, the Faculty of Medicine will have around 5,000 m2 of teaching space.
As part of this expansion, the Medicine Campus in Vic has spaces such as an anatomy laboratory (with a dissection room and a Sectra table), a preclinical laboratory (with oral cavity simulation tools), and a technology laboratory (with intraoral scanners, 3D printers, lasers, cameras, virtual reality tools and dental management software and digital X-rays, among others).
The Medical Campus in Manresa has a pre-clinical laboratory and a CAD-CAM classroom, mainly focused on computer-aided design of prostheses. These two laboratories, together with the University Dental Clinic (COU+), enable students to complete their practical training in simulation contexts and with real patients. In addition, the facilities of the University Clinic of Bages University Foundation will have up to 18 specific dentistry examination rooms and will incorporate the dentistry service into their multidisciplinary team. In addition, spaces and services will be available in the new dental clinic of the University Hospital of Santa Creu de Vic that is going to be opened.
The launch of the degrees in Dentistry and General Audiology coincides with an expansion of classroom and laboratory spaces in the Faculty of Medicine by 1,500 m2
Active methodologies and continuous training
The degree in Dentistry will be characterized by technology, which will be integrated into the entire training process, and by the use of active methodologies, following the teaching system of the Faculty of Medicine. Thus, in addition to lectures, students will learn from clinical simulation, learning based on clinical cases, and seminars and workshops, among others. Roberto Elosua, dean of the Faculty of Medicine, mentioned that “this provides opportunities, because students are at the centre of the learning process, and take responsibility and play an active role throughout their training.”
In this degree, students can undertake international mobility programmes, mainly in the fourth and fifth years, and the final year project will be focused on research and investigation in the field of Dentistry. The UVic-UCC plans to guarantee the continuity of training after the degree in Dentistry with an offer of university master’s degrees in this field, shared between the Vic and Manresa campuses.
“Students are at the centre of the learning process, and take responsibility and play an active role throughout their training”
Strong demand and high levels of employment
Dentistry graduates have a high rate of employment once they finish their studies. According to the latest employability survey carried out by the Catalan University Quality Agency (AQU), in 2020, 93.2% of graduates in Dentistry in Catalonia were employed half a year after finishing their studies, and 83.6% were carrying out the specific functions for which the degree qualifies them. Moreover, 91.8% had a job less than three months after graduating.
The professional opportunities for graduates of these studies are diverse, from clinical practice in public centres of the health network (community, hospitals, stomatology or dentistry services, among others) to private clinical practice centres. Dentistry graduates can also work in teaching or research, in innovation centres or companies or in R&D departments. The Institute for Research and Innovation in Life Sciences and Health in Central Catalonia (IRIS-CC), of which UVic-UCC is a member and that currently includes nine research groups in the field of health, will incorporate Dentistry among its lines of work.