• 40th ANNIVERSARY
• August 2022
• Bulletin

Olden Days

BDS Admissions in the Past

IQ, eye, and stereopsis tests – are some of the admissions assessments during the early stage of the BDS programme. To recruit outstanding students, the Faculty required applicants to have good exam results and pass the admissions test during the early days.

Dentists Require All-rounded Development

Faculty Admissions Committee set several entry requirements for the BDS programme in 1982. The Faculty believes that selecting candidates is challenging, as becoming a successful dentist is not solely about academic merits but all-rounded development. It includes clinical skills, psychological well-being and interpersonal skills.

Dentistry is an intense and demanding subject. The Faculty makes careful decisions on student recruitment and hopes candidates could get to know the BDS programme and basic concepts of dental learning through the admissions test.

Hurdles to Overcome

“In the early days, applicants had to take the admissions test a year before taking the public exams,” Professor Gary Cheung said. Professor Cheung is one of the first BDS graduates in the Faculty. He shared that he participated in three rounds of assessments, including an aptitude test, handcraft skills and IQ test, and a personal interview. Questions and puzzles in the admissions test were related to dental learning and allowed candidates to identify whether they have the potential to become a dentist.

A public exam shall not seal a student’s fate. The Faculty set up the admissions test to create a list of preferred candidates a year before the exams. The exam result, therefore, was not the sole criterion in student admissions. This attempt could give relatively fair consideration to the students who performed below par under the circumstances. Additionally, recruiting local talent, fostering Cantonese-speaking dentists and achieving gender balance (female recruitment) were other criteria for admission to the Faculty.

In Response to Changes

The admissions requirements have been changing and evolving according the reform of the education system over the years. What always remains constant is the Faculty’s pursuit of a holistic admissions process, as a good dentist needs to be versatile to look after varied patients and provide the best treatments. The Faculty also considers the talent of the students, such as sport or music, and other outstanding performances besides academic merit.

It is worth noting that there were only around 50 places for the BDS programme in the 1990s. Meeting the social development and medical need, the Faculty raised the number of places to 73 and 80 in recent years. Moving ahead, the Faculty plans to recruit 90 students in the academic year 2022/23 in response to the growing need for dental services in Hong Kong.

Resource

Admission to BDS Curriculum, Interflow – The Newspaper of University of Hong Kong, July 1980, Page 1-3

Professor Gary Cheung, Clinical Professor in Endodontics, HKU Faculty of Dentistry