EDITORIAL
Current outlook of graduate studies in dentistry
Isabela Almeida Pordeus
Head Professor, Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, School of Dentistry, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Coordinator (2008-2010), Area of Dentistry, Coordination of Higher Education Personnel Development (CAPES)
The Brazilian National System of Graduate Studies currently has 2,748 Courses/Programs distributed in nine major areas: Agricultural Sciences, Biological Sciences, Health Sciences, Earth and Exact Sciences, Humanities, Applied Social Sciences, Engineering, Linguistics, Arts and Letters, and Interdisciplinary Sciences.
The major area of Health has the greatest number of Courses/Programs (n = 452), followed by the major areas of Humanities (n = 394) and Applied Social Sciences (n = 348). The major area of Health is made up of eight areas: Physical Education, Nursing, Pharmaceutics, Medicine I, Medicine II, Medicine III, Dentistry, and Community Health. The area of Dentistry has the greatest number of Courses/Programs (n = 95), followed by Medicine II (n = 86) and Medicine I (n = 72).
Graduate Courses/Programs are geographically concentrated in the Southeast (n = 1,374) and South (n = 553) Regions. This same trend is observed for the Graduate Courses/Programs in the major area of Health and, when analyzing only the area of Dentistry, a similar distribution is observed: 63 Courses/Programs are offered in the Southeast, 16 in the South, 12 in the Northeast, 3 in the North and one in the Midwest.
Regarding the degrees offered by the Courses/Programs, most of them are Doctorate Programs (n = 1,426), and there are 253 Professional Master Programs in the country today. In the major area of Health, 291 are Doctorate Programs, 1,080 are Academic Master Programs and 41 are Professional Master Programs. Considering solely the area of Dentistry, there are 52 Doctorate Programs, 25 strictly Academic Master Programs and 18 Professional Master Programs. The percentage distribution by regions can be seen in Graph 1.
In terms of their ratings, most of the Graduate Courses/Programs are rated with a grade of "3" (n = 1,088) and "4" (n = 903). Similarly, the Courses/Programs in the major area of Health and in the area of Dentistry received grades of "3" and "4". Today there are 37 Courses/Programs in the area of Dentistry with a grade of "3", 32 with a grade of "4", and 22 with a grade of "5". Four programs are rated as having international excellence, 3 of which received a grade of "6" and one of which received a grade of "7".
For the triennium 2007-2009, the rating process will maintain the five-criteria evaluation system adopted in the preceding triennium: 1) Proposal of the Program; 2) Faculty; 3) Student body, Theses and Dissertations; 4) Intellectual Production; 5) Social Insertion. Nevertheless, one of its goals is to improve the standardization of the evaluation scorecards used by the different areas, minimizing the discrepancies in attributing weights among them, and thus guaranteeing greater consistency of evaluation. The final grade given to each program expresses how well the Program as a whole - as opposed to each of its individual components - meets a certain quality standard. However, the scorecard ascribes greater weight to items 3) Student body and 4) Intellectual Production, because these two items represent results, as opposed to processes. They are considered the most important focal points of the evaluation process in all areas. Thus, these two items express 70% of the grade, whereas items 2) Faculty and 5) Social Insertion account for 30% of it.
The Brazilian Graduate Studies System has involved a growing number of students in recent years. In the area of Dentistry, 743 new MSc students, 287 PhD students and 157 Professional MSc students were enrolled in 2007 (Graph 2). Similarly, the area of Dentistry has shown a good performance in terms of graduation, with low drop-out rates. In 2007, 603 Academic Masters, 267 PhDs and 223 Professional Masters received their titles (Graph 3).
Likewise, a growing number of professors have worked in Dental Graduate Courses/Programs. By the end of 2007, there were 1,643 professors involved in Graduate Programs in Dentistry, and this number practically doubled in the last 10 years (Graph 4).
Today, Brazil ranks 13 in terms of the production of scientific papers published in journals indexed in the Web of Science, and Brazilian Dentistry ranks fourth in the world. This publication effort is strongly linked to Graduate Programs. Based on the evolution seen in recent years, a significant increase in this production is evident (Graph 5).
Against this backdrop, Dentistry in Brazil seems to be enjoying a consolidated position, not only in terms of human resources but also in terms of production of scientific knowledge. On the other hand, greater regional balance in its Courses/Programs should be sought by strengthening graduate education in the North and the Midwest.
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
04 Nov 2009 -
Date of issue
Sept 2009
