Andrew Kalli (Year 4) writes:-
The 57th European Dental Students’ Association (EDSA) meeting took place in Coimbra, Portugal between 29th February and 4th March 2016. The meeting was particularly productive with additional country delegates from Albania and Estonia, as well as our neighbours at Manchester Dental School sending their first representatives too.
During the meeting, there was a particular interest in the clinical teaching of Dentistry around Europe. This follows from the encouragement of workforce mobility around EU member states. The EDSA explains its concerns that unless there is effort to create a Europe-wide minimum standard of education, qualifications awarded from different schools cannot be equivalent. The GDC acts as a regulating body for UK curriculums but this does not occur everywhere.
At the meeting, the Council of European Dentists (CED) and Association of Dental Educators in Europe (ADEE) both supported a data collection effort proposed by EDSA. EDSA is calling all current final years and recent graduates around Europe to anonymously enter their number of treatments completed around the time of graduation into an online survey. The data be used to highlight a minimum level of experience to aspire to.
In typical EDSA fashion, there were many opportunities for networking between dental schools each evening after the meeting. The local organising committee at the University of Coimbra were fantastic hosts and set the standard high for the next meeting in Barcelona, Spain. 
The upcoming meeting will commence with arrivals on the 21st August 2016. It is very exciting to hear a number of Birmingham students looking to attend this meeting in the summer! Keep up to date with details at: http://www.edsabarcelona.com/
BrumDentists 