Assessment and evaluation of individual prerequisites for dental education

Since 2001 the School of Dentistry of Malmo University in Sweden has used an alternative admissions procedure based on results of an investigation supported by the Swedish Council for the Renewal of Undergraduate Education. The investigation concerned possibilities of predicting dental school performance on the basis of an interview, as well as tests of general intelligence, spatial ability, manual dexterity, empathy and social competence. Two groups of incoming students were followed from start to completion of their training. Significant relationships were found between (i) number of course examinations failed and poor results on interviews, as well as low scores on intelligence, spatial ability, and a test of spatial-manual ability, (ii) good results in a pre-clinical course in cavity preparation and high scores on spatial ability, (iii) assessments of high social competence during training and good results on interviews, as well as high scores on empathy and non-verbal intelligence. Dropout from the study programme could not be predicted, possibly due to the varying reasons for it.