Career of 19 dental students on hold due to accreditation changes

Dubai: After paying Dh32,000 for a one year internship programme, the career of 19 dentistry students has been put on hold due to accreditation issues regarding their internship.

The students who completed their five-year bachelors in dental surgery at Ras Al Khaimah Medical and Health Sciences University’s College of Dental Sciences and a one year internship programme provided by the university said they were not able to apply for a license to practice dentistry, because their internship programme was no longer accredited.

As a result, the students were not able to pursue their career since August after paying around Dh350,000 and studying and training for six years.

The internship, which was first introduced in 2012, was accepted by all health authorities in the country. However, this stopped in September due to changes in policy by the authorities.

Students who spoke to Gulf News said the miscommunication by the authorities and university put their career on hold after studying hard for six years. The students wanted to remain anonymous and were given alternative names.

“I applied for the license exam in Dubai Health Authority and was rejected three times, they told me go to the Ministry of Health to get the internship attested. I went to the Ministry of Health they said no go to the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research. I got the attestation from the Ministry of Higher Education and was still denied the application for the license,” said Marwa.

Marwa who graduated in August said she has been going from authority to authority in vain due to lack of communication between the authorities. She also believes that the university should resolve the issue and find out which authority is responsible, since they offered the internship and did not inform them that is no longer accredited.

Another student Sara also said her application license was rejected from all health authorities in the country because of the internship.

“We tried to apply at the Health Authority — Abu Dhabi, Ministry of Health and Dubai Health Authority for a practice licence but they refused to accept our applications since the internship programme is not accredited by the Ministry of Health,” said Sara.

Sara said the two batches of students before her had no problems getting a licence but because of a change in the accreditation policy, the internship must now be attested by the Ministry of Health, which is turning students away.

“When we went to the Ministry of Health they kept saying go to the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, but the Dubai and Abu Dhabi Health Authorities said we still need the Ministry of Health’s attestation.

Gulf News contacted the Ministry of Health several times, but no comment was available.

Another student, Saleem said each authority told the student different things and this lack of communication between the authorities was worrying.

“Each authority is saying go to another authority and us the students are stuck in the middle. I think the university, which was informed about the issue since September should take active steps to solve this problem with the Ministry of Health," he said.

Mohammad Mostahsin, Dean of Ras Al Khaimah Dental College said he is sparing no effort to resolve the problem, adding he has already been in talks with the Ministry of Health.

“The internship was introduced in 2012 and there were no problems as all organisations accepted it. They stopped in September this year but we are talking to the Ministry of Health and believe the issue will be resolved soon,” he said.