On June 16th the School of Dental Sciences was delighted to host a symposium focusing on dental education research.

Coming together in a ‘Northern/Celtic alliance’ the dental schools of Newcastle, Glasgow and Cardiff met to discuss the challenges of undertaking high quality and meaningful dental educational research, to consider how cross school collaborations may be beneficial in overcoming such challenges and to identify strategic areas of common interest where collaborations would be fruitful.

Whilst it was evident that the three schools faced common dilemmas and challenges, at the end of the day it was gratifying to witness a real willingness to work together with objectives to improve our programmes, enhance student experience and increase the quality of our graduates.

Having developed a network of researchers, with collaborations established, and study visits planned, we look forward to meeting again at the same time next year and will be welcoming other UK dental schools to forge a network of pedagogical research and practice for UK dentistry.

Janice Ellis and Luisa Wakeling, School of Dental Sciences