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Quality assurance of pre-registration dental education


We are committed to ensuring our quality assurance of dental education and training fulfils our primary purpose, to protect patients.

The Standards for Education set out the requirements expected of all pre-registration programmes that lead to registration with the GDC. These Standards are the framework of our quality assurance processes. We are revising the Standards of Education and expect to have new ones in place by the end of 2025. 

Our quality assurance framework activity includes:  

New programmes 

The GDC assesses and approves all new pre-registration dentist and dental care professional programmes which lead to a registrable qualification.   

Only dental professionals registered with the GDC are allowed to work in the UK.   

If you are an education provider who would like to deliver a new programme, please see New programme submissions.  

Inspections 

Inspections are a core part of the quality assurance activity carried out by the GDC. There are several types of inspection, including: 

  • New programmes  

  • Risk-based inspections 

  • Awarding organisations 

  • Urgent inspection  

  • Targeted inspection.  

See the Inspections section for further information. 

Monitoring 

We carry out annual monitoring of education providers to keep track of any developments and challenges in the programmes we have approved and regulate. See the Monitoring section for further information about the process. 

Programme modification 

The programme modification process allows providers to notify the GDC of any changes to an approved programme. This process helps the GDC conduct the right level of monitoring to reflect the nature and scale of the proposed change(s). See the Programme modification section for further details.