ABSTRACT
Medicine and dentistry have recently seen a much greater level of scrutiny by the General Medical Council (GMC) and General Dental Council (GDC) and a shift to outcome-based curricula. The de facto outcomes for medicine can now be found in the Tomorrow’s Doctors (GMC, 2009) document, which sets out the minimum competencies of newly qualified doctors. The GDC published their ‘Preparing for Practice’ and ‘Standards for Education’ documents in 2011 and 2012, respectively, outlining the outcomes to be achieved and stipulating the educational rigour required for first registration. Every UK medical and dental school must demonstrate how these outcomes are to be achieved and assessed. Regulatory professional bodies have increasingly taken on a role in quality and their requirements highlight many current issues in health professional undergraduate education. Medical and dental schools must not only ensure the maintenance and assessment of academic standards, but they are also held accountable by these regulatory bodies, which are in turn accountable to the Department of Health and ultimately the general public. Overall, HE quality assurance practices also pertain, including those run by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA).
