UMAT Veteran
Regular Member
Hey everyone. I went to an ADAQ General meeting last night where Ward Massey (Dean and Head of School of Dentistry and Oral Health) addressed us on Griffith Unis current program, some things that are going on and its future direction. I have to say that i was very impressed. And whilst i WAS planning on still transferring over to UQ dent at the end of the year, after hearing some of the things going on I have decided to stay. He is working very hard to get CSP places for the final 2 years but is having a little trouble getting it past the Vice chancellor of the uni. Ward mentioned that one of his arguments was that we (Griffith Uni) are losing some very smart, Gifted and enthusiastic students who get offered places, show up for O-week then get offered elsewhere and take off. One example of which is a stud. that did just this and went to adelaide uni this year even though he lived on the GC and told massey it was because of the fees. One of the Vice chancellors arguments is that currently QTAC data shows there are 655 applicants for Griffith Dentistry for 80 places and said something along the lines of "with numbers like that, we can afford to double to fee places and they would still apply". Having said that, Massey and other academics are pushing hard and HOPE to have around half of the places in the Grad Dip CSP by the time we get to 4th year, but cannot promise anything because it is not set in stone.
Below is a facebook post a friend made of the notes she took during the meeting. They are pretty comprehensive and should ansswer a few of the Q's people have about Griffith. Enjoy
Tonight professor Ward Massey our head of school addressed the ADAQ at a general meeting and answered so many burning questions that we all want answers to. Those answers are below.
Why Oral Health Therapy was eliminated
And now for the most important bit.
You guys probably don't realise just how hard professor Massey is fighting for us. I didn't realise it until I heard him speak tonight. He wholeheartedly supports many of the things we are fighting for. After the meeting he handed the three of us that attended his business card and asked us to email him. Why? He wants us to do a mini survey of our friends and peers and see what YOU guys want. How are you finding foundation year health? Are there any subjects in which the teaching quality is particularly bad overall? He wants us to collate this and contact him and promises all information passed to him will be treated in confidence. He is surprisingly in touch with us and knows about much of what is going on. He knows for example there is mass forgery of signatures in 1111_DOH. He knows that Anatomy and Physiology is a killer. And he knows that we would rather do more dental related subjects in first year. But it's up to you guys to tell him your opinions.
Below is a facebook post a friend made of the notes she took during the meeting. They are pretty comprehensive and should ansswer a few of the Q's people have about Griffith. Enjoy
Tonight professor Ward Massey our head of school addressed the ADAQ at a general meeting and answered so many burning questions that we all want answers to. Those answers are below.
Why Oral Health Therapy was eliminated
- The quota of 25 spaces was always difficult to fill
- There is an increase in market competition with CQU (Central Queensland Uni) looking to introduce an OHT course in the future
- There are placement issues in QLD especially as JCU is also competing with us for limited placements for OHT studs.
- The school had grave concerns for accrediation because GH1 placements are not enough to be accredited.
- The discussion process is still ongoing with current students.
- There may be voluntary/forced redundancies for the OHT staff but right now they are still needed to teach the remaining OHT students. Some may be reintergrated into the school somehow. 3 main staff members are affected by this.
- The new building is 15,000 sqm compared with 6500 sqm currently at GH1 (Griffith Uni -Southport Centre for Medicine and Oral Health)
- Our current GH1 building actually won a prize for architectural design with steel!
- However not all of this space is for us (as is with the current building)
- GH1 was originally designed for 40 DSc, 10 OHT and 10 DTC students so we are outgrowing the building as current enrolment is around 80 DSc 20 OHT 20 DTC per year
- The postgrad clinic is increasing from 6 chairs to 32 chairs, with some of those chairs used for private practice.
- The Sim lab will have 112 units which can be split into 2 rooms
- There will also be room for clinical trials
- The same architects that designed the new UQ Dental school is designing ours.
- They are designing the new Oral health centre building as they go(!)(apparently this is how most modern day arcithects do it) so we don't know what the building will fully look like until they're done
- The plaza in the current specs will disappear as our vice chancellor said it looked too much like TianAnMen Square.
- The New hospital will have 2,229 car parks. But will it be enough?
- We have 10 cranes on the construction site at the moment.
- The new centre will have 5 or 6 simulators around a pod, which is a more intimate teaching environment as opposed to 10 students on a long bench which is currently at GH1
- Theory will not be taught in the same building as clinic held in. (Envisage walks from campus building to campus building, not having the luxury of just being in the same bulding like at GH1)
- We hope to be in by Semester 2 2013
- There will be an atrium with palm trees.
- It costs $136 million.
- Professor Massey is PUSHING VERY HARD to get the majority of 4th and 5th year as CSP BUT the higher ups in the university are making it very difficult. There has been a 15% budget cut for the school due to the GFC. He would love to promise us that by the time we get to 4th year there will be CSP places but he can't.
- The only way to keep making $$ with elimination of full fee would be to bring in more international students however Professor Massey does not want to do this as he believes it is a bit unethical to have more internationals just to offset our bills.
- Current QTAC data shows that there are 655 people applying for 80 places so this is the excuse the higher ups are saying to keep the full fee
- However Professor Massey is very aware that people are leaving for USYD, UQ and Uni of Adelaide and knows that ultimately (and I quote) "we are losing the best people for the wrong reasons".
- The interview for DSc has been eliminated and the reason for this is there is Interpersonal Skills which is meant to help us be more interpersonal (!)
- Incidentally when the previous years had to do 'Psychology for the Health Sciences' there were a large number of complaints about that subject being too in depth about Freud etc which is why they moved to Interpersonal Skills.
- Professor Massey is hoping that foundation health year will have more Oral health school based subjects and this will happen in the future as they continually review the program and get feedback from students
- We don't treat patients till 3rd year. Professor Massey wants to change this to 2nd semester 2nd year but don't know when
- Next year Griffith will be able to access half of all QLD health clinical placement facilities with UQ accessing the other half. This will cause some problems as QLD health placements are 13-17 weeks while our curriculum doesn't run with this, but Griffith is altering it's program to accomodate.
- QLD health placements for Griff will now include places like Warwick, the Darling Downs, Sunshine Coast, all over South East Queensland and of course Brisbane.
- Professor Ian Meyers disputes the fact that we will have an oversupply of dentists in 10 years for the following reasons: 1) current dentists are quite old (ie they will start retiring), 2) our population is increasing 3) dentists are staying in the practice shorter than traditionally.
- We are experiencing a shortage of dental academics and have resorted in poaching dental staff from one uni to the next.
- There are 9 dental schools in Australia and 3 of the newest are all in QLD.
- CQU is starting an OHT program with intake of around 20-30
- Our school currently receives 7% funding from both research performance and Learning and teaching performance.
- The school hopes to focus in future on Biomaterials science and more clinical trials.
- The school doesn't have enough broad ranges of continuing education. It wants to give back to alumni and staff with more professional development.
- The school is currently an examination site for overseas trained dentists applying with the ADC.
And now for the most important bit.
You guys probably don't realise just how hard professor Massey is fighting for us. I didn't realise it until I heard him speak tonight. He wholeheartedly supports many of the things we are fighting for. After the meeting he handed the three of us that attended his business card and asked us to email him. Why? He wants us to do a mini survey of our friends and peers and see what YOU guys want. How are you finding foundation year health? Are there any subjects in which the teaching quality is particularly bad overall? He wants us to collate this and contact him and promises all information passed to him will be treated in confidence. He is surprisingly in touch with us and knows about much of what is going on. He knows for example there is mass forgery of signatures in 1111_DOH. He knows that Anatomy and Physiology is a killer. And he knows that we would rather do more dental related subjects in first year. But it's up to you guys to tell him your opinions.