[But what future for our students?]

Since June 1, 2002, only those dental practitioners holding a specific professional title are entitled to independent practice. Those practitioners are the General Dentists, the Orthodontists and the Periodontists who have had additional vocational training of one, four, or three years respectively, after completion of their study programme leading to a Licentiate in Dental Sciences (Transition measures allowed practising dentists and students who were enrolled in a training program prior to June 1, 2002 to obtain one of these titles). This regulation includes provisions to limit access to the profession for graduates holding a degree delivered by a university in the Flemish community (84 per year) or the French Community (56 per year). In the French Community, the implementation of a Numerus Clausus (limitation of numbers admitted) at the end of the first study cycle allowed for a limitation of the number of students admitted to the second cycle, and as a consequence it limited the number of candidates enrolling in vocational training in order to obtain a specific professional title. The non-compliance with - and later the cancellation of - this limitation resulted in the number of candidates seeking a specific professional title to be larger than the numbers in the quotas imposed by the Federal State.