Accreditation of dental programs in Australia: a thematic analysis of recommendations, 1996-2004

For dental education to continue to grow in Australia, there is a need to understand the effect of new innovations and to reflect on the way the profession as a whole has adapted to the highly innovative environment that is modern dental education. The Australian Dental Council's (ADC) accreditation activities for undergraduate dental programs is one constant over the last ten years that can be used to provide some insight into the reactions of schools to threats and opportunistic solutions brought about by change. In this study, accreditation reports were analyzed to provide trends in the themes of accreditation findings over the last ten years. The hypothesis was that the themes emanating from the findings of accreditation will reflect changes over time as schools have adapted to the changing higher education environment. A total of 820 recommendations were collated from twenty-one reports. From the recommendations collated, a series of themes were identified; predominant themes included staff, external relationships, funding, structure, documentation, curriculum, and communications. No clear trends in terms of recommendations were noted over the study period, and themes remained fairly consistent over the years. The outcome of the study did not support the hypothesis that changing trends in accreditation recommendations over the last ten years would reflect changes in the environment in which education providers are operating.