The ADC works to protect the health and safety of the public by ensuring dental practitioners meet the high standards required of dental professionals in Australia.
Information for internationally qualified dental practitioners on assessment pathways and requirements for practice in Australia.
Guidance and resources for education providers delivering ADC-accredited dental practitioner programs in Australia.
Learn more about our submissions, consultations and research activities that support the oral health sector
ADC International (ADCI) is a leading independent authority in accreditation and assessment of health programs worldwide, with a particular focus on oral health.
Under the National Law, the Australian Dental Council (ADC) must monitor accredited programs to ensure they continue to meet the Accreditation Standards.
To fulfil this responsibility, the ADC carries out a range of monitoring activities. The most commonly used tools and methods are outlined in the ADC Monitoring Framework and below.
Frequency: Annually, or as requested
The ADC requires education providers to complete annual monitoring reports for each accredited program to track changes and developments and to monitor continued compliance with the Accreditation Standards. This is generally conducted annually, however in extenuating circumstances the ADC may request reports more regularly.
Annual reports are required to be submitted using the ADC’s pro-forma.
Reports are reviewed internally by the Accreditation Secretariat, with assistance from the Chair of the Accreditation Committee, other members of the Accreditation Committee and ADC assessors when required.
All annual reports are reviewed and approved by the Accreditation Committee. If an issue or irregularity is identified and it is determined there may be issues which bring into doubt whether the program continues to meet the Accreditation Standards, the ADC will request further information from the education provider. The additional information will then be considered by the Accreditation Committee to determine if further action is required.
Frequency: As reported
Material changes are program changes that may (or will) significantly affect the way the program meets the Accreditation Standards.
An education provider must notify the ADC in writing of a material change to any part of an accredited program relevant to the Accreditation Standards. This may include,
Planned changes should be reported to the ADC in advance of their occurrence, and in sufficient time to enable an assessment against the Accreditation Standards. The Accreditation Committee will determine if what is reported is a material change and if it warrants a reassessment of the accreditation status of a program.
Frequency: As arises
There may be instances where at the time of an accreditation visit a program meets the Accreditation Standards, but a known future event or activity creates uncertainty as to whether one or more of the Accreditation Standards will continue to be met during the period of accreditation. This could, for example, include cases where an education provider is moving to new clinical facilities that could not be viewed by the Accreditation Team at the time of the site visit, or a new program that appears compliant on paper, but which has not yet graduated any students. In such cases, the ADC may undertake a monitoring visit to ensure that the program continues to meet the Accreditation Standards.
The ADC’s ‘Concerns about accredited programs policy’ is a mechanism to raise a concern that an approved program or an education provider may no longer be meeting the Standards. Concerns can be received by the ADC from any person or entity. The ADC will only consider and investigate concerns about an ADC accredited program if the issue raised may signify a failure of an ADC accredited program or provider to meet one or more of the Accreditation Standards.
Frequency: As requested
Final year dental students may be asked to complete a monitoring examination for dental programs. The ADC provides de-identified feedback to participating schools on the performance of students and of the performance of their student cohort against the wider (de-identified) group of participants.
The ADC may monitor the performance of a specific School’s program in the examination as an indicator of whether the program continues to meet the Accreditation Standards.
As part of the Monitoring framework, we also undertake the following external validation activities: