AASTMT administration has realized the importance of educational innovation and development, since the early days of its establishment in 1972. In 1975, AASTMT adopted the Credit-Hour System in many of its educational programs.
Since its establishment, the AASTMT started to develop its teaching programs according to two basic principles. First, that the student body, staff members and administrators are the main driving force of the educational process and its source of creativity and innovation. Second, that the educational activities should challenge students’ intellectual abilities and stimulate discussion and new ideas, whether these educational activities are carried out in university lecture rooms, laboratories or workshops.
College of Dentistry
The Bachelor of Oral and Dental Surgery program BDS spans five study levels with 10 different semesters. A clinical training is placed in summer semesters between, levels 4 and 5. In addition to the mandatory core courses that cover the minimum requirements to meet the targeted educational outcomes of the program, the Bachelor of Oral and Dental Surgery offers a collection of elective courses that are intended to advance the students’ knowledge and expertise in an area of their choice. A one-year train g period after finishing level 10 is obligatory to be licensed for work. This program offers several unique features among other dental programs in Egypt.
The program comprises 182 credit hours (Graded from F up to A) and 80 hours of summer clinical training as experiential learning (Graded as Pass “P” or Fail “F” and required for graduation). These credits are distributed among courses that employ a variety of educational and assessment techniques including the traditional didactic lectures in addition to the nontraditional problem-based and team-based learning modules aiming to maximize student engagement and broaden the scope of learning.
The course content is designed to offer the students a stepwise exposure to the different professional competencies with increasing depth as study levels progress maintaining vertical and horizontal integration of the curriculum. A single competency will be targeted by several courses in a spiral manner and integrated within a matrix of other relevant competencies to achieve the desired practice and knowledge educational outcomes.
The program entails the following:
§ Basic Medical and Dental Sciences
§ Pre-clinical Dental Sciences
§ Clinical Dental Sciences
State of the art multipurpose laboratories, technical laboratories, and simulation laboratories are employed to expose the student to a hands-on learning approach and enhance professional and technical skills.
Clinics are equipped with up-to-date facilities to develop and expand students’ clinical skills are established and well-staffed
for this objective.
