Category: News

  • Webinar for UK Trainees and Training Programme Directors

    COPDEND will be hosting a webinar on Monday 9th March 2026 from 6-7pm for Training Programme Directors and UK Trainees with a National Training Number (NTN). This webinar will communicate key progress and updates on the delivery of the tri-Collegiate Dental Specialty Fellowship Examinations and Membership of the Faculty of Dental Surgery (MFDS) examinations. Arrangements…

  • The MFDS qualification is changing

    The MFDS (Membership of the Faculty of Dental Surgery) qualification will be changing over 2026 and 2027.  This is an update on the changes and what they mean for you if you have already passed MFDS, are part-way through MFDS, or plan to sit MFDS in the future. What is the MFDS? The MFDS is…

  • Exam Boards kick off design of a ‘new generation’ of exams

    The design of 10 Dental Specialty Fellowship Examinations is now underway following completion of the planning stages of a new, joined-up approach to assessment. Dental Specialty Fellowship Examinations Board Chair, Professor Sondos Albadri, and education expert Dr Yvonne Hurst, met with members of the 10 new exam boards to begin work on the new exams…

  • Dentists invited to become examiners for new assessments

    2 April 2025 The newly-appointed exam board chairs for the Dental Specialty Fellowship Examinations and revised MFDS are calling for experienced clinicians to join them to support the next generation of assessment. Ten leading dentists were appointed as exam board chairs in March. They are now inviting other experienced clinicians to become members of the…

  • Leading paediatric dentist appointed as Chair of exams board

    6 February 2025 Professor Sondos Albadri, an honorary consultant in Paediatric Dentistry and Vice Dean at Liverpool University, has been appointed as the first Chair of the Dental Specialty Fellowship Examinations Board. The appointment follows an agreement between four Royal Colleges in the UK and Ireland to work together on a new, joined-up approach to…

  • Webinar – 26 November 2024

    This webinar was held on 26 November to introduce the Training Programme Directors and Associate Deans to the new Dental Specialty Fellowship Examinations. As the work to develop this initiative continues, elements may change and new information will be made available on this website.

  • Dental specialties assessment strategy goes live

    Update to the news release of 13 November – 13 December 2024 The sentence starting, “Dental trainees….” relating to transitional arrangements has been updated to remove the text: “will generally complete their training with the existing curriculum and the existing membership and fellowship examinations”. 13 November 2024 The new assessment strategy for nine dental specialties…

  • Progress made towards a joined-up approach to summative assessment

    20 September 2024 Dentists entering specialty training from September 2024 will follow the revised UK General Dental Council (GDC) curricula and will benefit from a new approach to examinations provision. The new examinations are being developed following an agreement from the four Surgical Royal Colleges of the UK and in Ireland to work together on…

  • Intercollegiate approach to assessment

    19 August 2024 The General Dental Council (GDC) has published newly revised curricula for dental specialties, which will be introduced for trainees beginning their specialty training from September 2024. The current system of assessment has a number of different approaches in use by the specialties and inconsistencies between these, with exams administered by individual Royal…

  • Surgical Royal Colleges work together towards new dental exams

    2 May 2024 The UK’s three surgical royal colleges are working together to develop a joined-up approach to assessment for dental specialties.This follows publication of the General Dental Council (GDC)’s newly revised curricula for dental specialties, which will be introduced from September 2024. Currently, most dental specialties have multiple versions of the specialty exam, administered…