Sir, the BDA Dental Academic Staff Group recently held a national workshop on the subject of student electives. Delegates were invited from all the UK dental schools, and other key dental decision makers including the President of the General Dental Council (GDC) attended. The stated objective of the meeting was to discuss whether to retain and develop dental student electives in the future, in particular to assess the current value of electives and to understand the learning outcomes that should be achieved by an elective or period of independent study.

Elective studies are specifically referred to in the GDC's document The first five years, upon which dental school curricula are based. The relevant paragraphs are:

'107. Students may gain useful educational experience outside the confines of the formal curriculum by participation in research projects under supervision or in elective programmes, whether in the United Kingdom or overseas.

'108. It is desirable, though not essential, for dental students to visit other dental schools or dental clinical centres, either in the United Kingdom or abroad, during the period of clinical study. The main objective should be to broaden the undergraduates' education by exploring the dental problems and dental management systems in another context. As far as possible, curricula should be designed to facilitate opportunities for elective studies. Elective visits might be arranged around a project consisting of either audit or research, and the results should be presented on return by students in written form or verbally before an audience.'

As the delegates from Glasgow Dental Hospital and School, we were surprised to learn that several UK schools have removed all elective programmes from their curriculum or are considering so doing. Two UK schools did not send a representative to the meeting. We would like to suggest, for wider discussion among the profession, that the elective programme forms an essential part of an undergraduate dental student's personal and professional development. This was certainly the impression given by the three student presentations on three quite different elective projects. Each speaker acknowledged that they had significantly developed in confidence, maturity and experience in a way that would have been impossible without this opportunity.

Given the clear benefits of the elective period on both a personal and professional level for these students, we were interested to note the intention of at least one UK school to essentially convert the elective programme to a period of formal research. Whilst the value of a background in research is important, the vast majority of undergraduates will be entering the general dental service and our feeling was that such a specific programme as an elective project added little to broadening the undergraduates' education for the majority of these students when compared with a wider based remit for elective study. It is acknowledged that an honours level degree programme must include an element of independent study, but does this have to be pure scientific research?

In our new, or 2004, curriculum at Glasgow we have chosen not only to retain the elective period, but to enhance it by broadening the range of experiences that our students may undertake. We also intend to include a number of student selected modules in the final year to enable the students to deepen their knowledge and experience of areas of particular interest – a time when formal research might be more appropriate. We are quite sure that by undertaking these experiences and reflecting on the outcomes our graduates will be better prepared for dental practice than those who simply follow a five year period of intensive academic study.

We hope that this letter will stimulate a wide debate and look forward with keen interest to the views expressed by our colleagues in both academic institutions and general practice.