Ewen McColl

Ewen McColl, professor of clinical dentistry1, Wendy Turner, clinical professor in restorative dentistry2, Margaret Kingston, professor of medicine3, Richard G Watt, professor of dental public health4 Author affiliations Correspondence to: E McColl ewen.mccoll@plymouth.ac.uk Contract reform and long term workforce planning are critical to halt declining access to care Patients unable to access dental care are presenting to general practices and emergency departments in increasing numbers,...

The recent article by Lalloo1 highlighted some of the conflicting challenges faced by universities across the world, particularly the UK. The conclusion drawn in the article related to metrics for ranking dental schools touching on the importance of research to universities: the rankings are biased to research metrics and reputation, rather than the quality of the teaching of oral health professionals.

Article Working as heads of dental schools at almost opposite ends of the UK, a common thread on our travels, from qualified dental colleagues, is that the dental graduates of today are ‘not as good as they use to be – are they?’ This is perhaps one of the biggest challenges we face because it can be incredibly damaging to the reputation of our profession and to recent graduates embarking on their dental careers, particularly at this time of year.