Accreditation Results(Accreditation Results for School of Dental Education)

Hiroshima University
School of Dentistry, Program of Dentistry

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: National

Location: Hiroshima, Japan

Accreditation Status
Year of the Review: 2023
Accreditation Status: accredited （Accreditation Period: April 1, 2024 – March 31, 2031）

Hiroshima University, School of Dentistry, Program of Dentistry

Accreditation Resultsfor Hiroshima University, School of Dentistry, Program of Dentistry
Hiroshima University, School of Dentistry, Program of Dentistry, operates on thefounding principle of “a single unified university, free and pursuing peace” with its uniquepurpose of “providing foundational dentistry education and specialized education aimed
at nurturing professionals who will lead the development of dental science and medicine
in Japan and abroad and contribute to the advancement of dental medicine and dental
healthcare by developing dentists with a spirit of scientific inquiry, a global outlook,advanced academic knowledge and medical skills, and well-rounded character traits,”
formulated based on Hiroshima University Charter’s educational vision that reads:“Hiroshima University will create an environment in which each student can learn
independently and flexibly, while nurturing individuals with a rich sense of humanity,
broad education, excellent specialized knowledge, and the ability to discover and solve
problems on their own, who will contribute to the realization of a society that enables freeand peaceful sustainable development.” The School strives to train dentists with the skills
to provide holistic dental care and all-rounded competencies for succeeding globally
based on the three educational pillars of (a) Biodental Education, (b) Interprofessional
Education, and (c) International Education.
To achieve its goals the School offers a curriculum based around the Hiroshima
University Program of Specified Education and Study, or HiPROSPECTS Ｒ○ , a goaloriented educational procedure adopted across the university. Structured by year levels toensure progressive learning, the curriculum consists of courses in the two subject groupsof Liberal Arts Education and Specialized Core, and promotes small-group education andactive learning methods, such as Project-Based Learning (PBL) and role-playing, alongwith experiential and online learning and other teaching strategies. To develop a researchmindset the School provides opportunities for students to take graduate-level dental
science courses and be assigned to a research laboratory. A notable feature of the School’s
education program is the International Dental Course, which accepts long-term exchange
students from Hiroshima University’s overseas partner institutions and conducts mostlectures and training in English and Japanese. The course is highly commendable in thatit helps nurture globally competent professionals and provides students with anopportunity to learn about diversity. Interprofessional Education (IPE), a joint programof the schools of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences offered to students intheir first year and in an advanced year, is an effective strategy to impart knowledge on abroad range of medical professions and to provide a practical learning opportunity in1

Hiroshima University, School of Dentistry, Program of Dentistryteam-based care. Also of note is the unique tutoring system that assigns students withprimary and secondary tutors as a means to cater to their specific needs.
There are several areas of improvement the School should address, however,despite the various strengths noted above.
First, the syllabus in some courses fails to provide information that should beincluded, such as the learning achievement objectives and grading criteria. Second, thequalifications for teaching clinical clerkships are not clearly specified, and therequirements should be defined to clarify where the responsibility for the course lies.
Third, the number of student-patient encounters in the clinical clerkships is inadequate;
efforts should be made to increase the amount of clinical experience. Furthermore, toachieve the unique goals described above, the School should strive to assure the clinicalcompetency of its students at the time of graduation by (a) clarifying each department’sevaluation criteria provided in the clinical training course syllabus and the Preliminaryand Clinical Training Guide, and ensuring consistency of style and wording in these
documents; (b) strengthening medical safety measures; (c) developing alternative
methods of clinical training when providing sufficient clinical experiences for students isdifficult; (d) resuming the use of the external facilities currently closed; and (e) centrally
monitoring student attendance. The fifth area of improvement concerns the variouslearning effectiveness surveys conducted by the School. The surveys’ low response rates
call for improvement in how they are conducted so as to ensure their relevance. Finally,
the ratio of student enrollment to the student enrollment cap has been high over the past
few years, and the School needs to better monitor its student admissions to maintainappropriate student enrollment.
To improve these issues the School is advised to utilize the results of thisaccreditation for schools of dental education and continue its self-study efforts for
improvement, while assuring and enhancing the quality of its undergraduate dentaleducation and further developing the unique characteristics of its dental education
program.

2