globe and mail article

[Guest sensodyne]

Does anyone happen to have a copy of Feb 28, 2005 article in The Globe and Mail titled "Canada's dentistry schools face funding emergency"?

[Guest Dent08]

www.theglobeandmail.com/s...ergencies+

 

"Despite a more than fivefold tuition increase, the U of T dentistry faculty is on the verge of bankruptcy"

 

"We're [at] the stage where, if something doesn't happen within the next three or so years, we'll be looking at an unmanageable deficit and, conceivably, closing." - U of T dean Dr. David Mock

 

Wow.

[Guest Aplusdent]

Noooooooo......I need to get in there.......if someone is related to someone with lots of $$ please suggest to them to donate something to UofT...(like what happened at UWO).

[Guest tamkhan1]

haha..this is strange news..lemme advertise this on msn:rollin

[Guest sensodyne]

the link leads to a summary of hte article and a statement that I have to purchase this article to view it. Dent08, you dont' happen to have a copy handy do you?

[Guest Tbablani]

72.14.203.104/search?q=ca...=clnk&cd=2

 

enjoy the colorful article

[Guest Tbablani]

OR maybe not..here i'll just post it

 

 

Canada's dentistry schools face funding emergency

Despite a more than fivefold tuition increase, the U of T dentistry faculty is on the verge of bankruptcy, BEPPI CROSARIOL writes

BEPPI CROSARIOL

 

After 3½ years of dental school, Luis Piedade's accumulated debt of $170,000 is enough to cause anyone the jitters.

 

But the University of Toronto student is taking the red ink in stride. Once he enters private practice after a hospital residency next year, he expects to work his way into the black within several years.

 

If only his school had such rosy prospects.

 

Despite more than a fivefold hike in tuition fees over the past decade (to $24,000 a year, including equipment and ancillary fees), the university's faculty of dentistry is on the verge of bankruptcy, says its dean, Dr. David Mock.

 

"We're [at] the stage where, if something doesn't happen within the next three or so years, we'll be looking at an unmanageable deficit and, conceivably, closing."

 

While there is hardly a university department not bemoaning 15 years of government cutbacks, Dr. Mock says his faculty is facing an especially acute problem. And U of T's dental school -- Canada's largest, with 70 students in each of four undergraduate years -- is not the only one in crisis.

 

Virtually all other dentistry schools in the country are facing similar hardships. Those schools say that if provincial governments don't ante up emergency funding soon, one or more will have to close down or pare back enrolment.

 

Either way, people in the profession argue, there will be fewer new recruits entering dentistry, causing a shortfall as the country's existing 18,000 dentists, many in their 50s and 60s, nudge closer to retirement.

 

The problem would likely be most acute outside major cities, forcing patients in underserviced rural areas to travel farther for oral health care.

 

"If you aren't getting students from rural areas, will they go to rural areas when they're finished?" asks Alfred Dean, president of the Canadian Dental Association and a dentist in New Waterford, N.S.

 

The dental schools are in crisis largely because of the mounting costs of running dental clinics, a mandatory part of the training curriculum.

 

To attract willing and varied patients -- mostly low-income people who tend to face the worst dental problems -- U of T's clinic charges only about 60 per cent of the going market rate. With revenue running at almost $4-million a year and operating costs of almost $9-million, the annual shortfall amounts to about $5-million.

 

"That's [actually] great for a university dental clinic," Dr. Mock says. "To anybody in business, that's a disaster, but you accept that it's going to cost something for the teaching part."

 

For the past decade, Canada's dental schools have been jacking up tuition fees to stem the tide of red ink, as governments tightened the tap on funding. The only Canadian school currently running at break-even is the University of British Columbia, which charges students a steep $40,000 a year in combined tuition and equipment costs -- the highest in the country.

 

The universities of Toronto and Western Ontario, in particular, cast themselves as victims of provincial health care funding policies that favour medical clinics over dental clinics. The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care, for example, provides U of T's medical faculty with $13-million annually for clinical teaching, as well as allowing medical students to piggyback off the resources of public hospitals.

 

By contrast, the university dentistry clinics must cover all their own costs including paying outside dentists nominal day rates of $100 or $125 to supervise the students.

 

"The cost of running the clinical facilities is the equivalent of running a hospital without any funding for it," says Dr. Carol Herbert, dean of the Schulich School of Medicine and the School of Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario.

 

For its part, the Ontario health ministry says its policy of not subsidizing dental training is consistent with the Canada Health Act. "Hospitals have always been a ministry of health entity," says ministry spokesman David Jensen.

 

Dr. Mock says Toronto and Western will soon submit a joint proposal to the province's health ministry requesting the government direct new funds directly toward the dental clinics.

 

Rolling back faculty salaries isn't a prudent option, many in the profession say, because universities are already finding it difficult to retain teachers, who on average earn about $100,000 versus $200,000 to $300,000 for established private practitioners. Dr. Dean says each faculty in Canada is looking to fill between one and six positions.

 

Mr. Piedade, for one, hopes eventually to take up such a position. But first, he says, he'll have to pay off his loans.

 

"I'm figuring at the beginning it would probably have to be a private office, just to get back on my feet, and then work my way back."

[Guest yellow]

Thanks so much for posting the article.

It was certainly an interesting read. :eek

[Guest sensodyne]

well...now i understand why ubc charges 45 grand per year for entering students.

 

what about this huge donation made by an alumni to Western? Is Western now able to stay afloat w/o having to increase their tuition? What about U of T? Do you guys think other schools will in the near future follow suit and charge a 20 grand clinic fee like ubc does?