Earlier this year UKCD Senior Curriculum Coordinator David Sacks, PhD, traveled to Turkey, on behalf of the UK Graduate School, to present three workshops on Preparing Future Faculty. While in Turkey, Sacks visited a new dental school at the Nuh Naci Yazgan University to discuss curriculum and the dental schools.

“There was a good opportunity to meet with the dean from the brand-new dental school in the city of Kayseri of Turkey. They have about a class size of 70 students, and it is a 5-year program. They just started their third year with it.”

When meeting with Dr. Cem Gurgan, the dean of the dental school at Nuh Naci Yazgan University, Sacks discussed UKCD’s 4-year curriculum, how the courses map out and overlap, and talked about digital dentistry.

Discussing our curriculum with other dental schools is important, because “Our curriculum certainly shows the Kentucky model of dental education, and I am very familiar with it and that’s getting students into the clinic as soon as possible and making a much more friendly environment for students than was before the Kentucky model started. Also, we have invested quite a bit in digital dentistry, and I know that we are really working hard too and Dr. Okeson really wants it to be one of the flagship notations of our college.” 

Creating conversations between dental schools is beneficial, because “When you are able to cross-pollinate ideas with curriculum and methods of instruction, I think we can have a really powerful influence…It was just a good opportunity to start some conversations without making any promises of future collaborations,” said Sacks.