Kenya Dental Association warns prospective learners over imitation university & college courses
Kenya Dental Association warns prospective learners over imitation university & college courses
The Kenya Dental Association has raised an alarm over a growing trend of unregulated imitation courses being marketed to students across the country.
In a statement on Thursday, February 26, KDA cautioned the public against enrolling in courses that appear to imitate regulated courses but do not meet the regulatory requirements.
“Parallel and unregulated imitation courses for sale to people derail standards of public healthcare and result in mockery and grave harm to our people,” KDA wrote.
The lobby group was forced to clarify the matter following confusion between accredited degrees and other courses bearing similar titles that are not permitted by the government.
The KDA specifically flagged an Oral Health degree course offered by a popular private university in the country, stating that the course was not equivalent to the Bachelor of Dental Surgery.
The Association warned that similarities in the naming of certain programmes could create confusion, potentially leading students to assume they are enrolling in a professional track that guarantees licensure when, in fact, it does not.
“KDA wishes to inform the public about misleading information implying that the Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Oral Health programme is equivalent to the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) programme,” the Association stated.
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“Bachelor of Science in Oral Health is not equivalent to the Bachelor of Dental Surgery degree. The public is therefore advised to take note of this distinction when making academic and professional decisions,” it added.
KDA noted that only Dental Surgery degree holders from an accredited institution and licensed by the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) are permitted to practise dentistry in Kenya.
It further noted that so far, only two universities in the country are accredited and licensed to train dentists in Kenya, the University of Nairobi and Moi University.
The warning followed a similar notice by the Ministry of Health, in which it indicated that the Oral Health programme was not aligned with prevailing oral health population needs and lacked a clearly established service delivery gap.
The said private university was therefore directed to immediately discontinue the programme and develop a transition plan for affected students in consultation with KMPDC.
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