A retrospective study of the admission ways in the School of Dentistry of National Taiwan University from 2000 to 2021

The historical context of the establishment of the Department of Dentistry of National Taiwan University

“…However, how to cultivate comprehensive contributing dentists with a sense of humanistic care and social responsibility will be a major issue for dental education in the near future. 4 , 5 …”

Distribution of the Taiwanese dentists graduating from foreign dental schools in the 22 foreign countries surveyed until January 2023

“…Especially since the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI) in 1995, the career of dentists has been greatly favored by our social value system, resulting in fierce competition for the limited admission quotas in our domestic dental schools. 3 , 4 Therefore, students from wealthy families choose to study dentistry in foreign dental schools, when they cannot obtain admission to domestic dental schools. As a large number of graduates from foreign dental schools returned to Taiwan and participated in the national dentist license examination (NDLE), it eventually sparked controversy regarding the surplus of dental manpower.…”

“…However, this number has far exceeded the annual 371 dental admission quotas of Taiwan for the quantity control mechanism. 4 Based on the distribution of foreign countries where these 513 examinees completed their dental education, the foreign country with the largest number of Taiwanese dental graduates was Poland (201, 39.18%), followed by Spain (198, 38.60%) and Japan (48, 9.36%). Greek scholars discovered that students who fail to gain admission permission in the dental and medical schools of Greece often go abroad to study dentistry or medicine.…”

The considerations of a high school student for applying to dental school: A case of one-to-one counseling for higher education

“…In addition to the additional enrollment quotas for disadvantaged students, the number of general dental enrollment quotas in the common admission channels is fixed at 371 per year for the quota control policy of medical personnel. 2 Furthermore, Taiwan had 95,498 high school graduates in 2022. Although not all high school graduates aspire to enter the dental schools, it is certain that there are tens of thousands of potential competitors for only 371 dental enrollment quotas each year.…”

“… 3 , 4 However, since Taiwan implemented the National Health Insurance (NHI) in 1995, the degree to which the career of dentists is favored by our high school students has undergone a drastic upward change. 1 , 2 Unfortunately, the main factor may simply be that the social value system generally believes that dentists (especially those working in clinics) have the advantages of high incomes and high quality of life. Although admission into dental schools is a competitive and multi-faceted process designed to select students who are capable of completing the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS), it is more important to discover students who also possess the attributes to become a full contributing member of the profession.…”