The authors analyse more evidence to support a framework that was developed for understanding and evaluating the impact of accreditation activities of dental education programs in Australia. By capturing key stakeholders' perspectives and an underpinning logic model, they determine how a variety of impact mechanisms could be leveraged to achieve strategic and accreditation objectives aimed at improving public health outcomes.

Increasing the Impact of Dental Program Accreditation Processes

Identifying Strengths and Opportunities for Improvement

Joanne Nicholson, Priya Gandhi, Kristina Novakovic, Daniel Marns

ResearchPublished Sep 2, 2025

This report documents the second phase of a project undertaken by the Australian Dental Council (ADC) to develop a framework for understanding and evaluating the impact of its dental education program–accreditation activities. This research builds on a first phase in which an impact framework, as well as a logic model undergirding it, were developed. The second phase captures and elevates key stakeholders' perspectives around the ADC's accreditation activities and proposed logic model for generating impact in greater detail. The applicability of the ADC's impact mechanisms, specified in the first research phase, is also examined. The authors developed recommendations for how these impact mechanisms can be leveraged in light of stakeholder perceptions and feedback so that the ADC can improve its impact according to its strategic and accreditation objectives that are aligned with public health outcomes.

Key Findings

  • Education providers (60 percent; 27 of 45) and assessors (73 percent; 37 of 51) generally believed that the ADC's accreditation process effectively contributes to ensuring that dental education programs produce safe graduates.
  • Most education providers and assessors also looked favourably on the outcomes and impact of the ADC's accreditation process on education providers, with a majority 'agreeing' or 'strongly agreeing' with related questions.
  • Although education providers and assessors generally felt that the accreditation process led to positive changes across open-ended responses, a few raised perceptions related to a lack of (or a lack of knowledge of) accountability mechanisms.
  • Education providers raised the need for strong institutional support, including adequate governance and knowledge-sharing, as well as adequate program staff with appropriate experience.

Recommendations

  • Investigate how large workloads that are associated with accreditation could be alleviated with the introduction of artificial intelligence tools.
  • Explore how greater clarity of standards and expectations of appropriate metrics can be achieved.
  • Enhance the processes for selecting assessment team members to strengthen trust and respect between education providers and assessors.
  • Undertake modelling to investigate how fragile the Australian dental education ecosystem may be with regards to the maintenance of all existing programs.

Topics

Document Details

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

Nicholson, Joanne, Priya Gandhi, Kristina Novakovic, and Daniel Marns, Increasing the Impact of Dental Program Accreditation Processes: Identifying Strengths and Opportunities for Improvement. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3935-1.html.
BibTeX RIS

Research conducted by

This work was funded by the Australian Dental Council (ADC) and conducted by RAND Australia.

This publication is part of the RAND research report series. Research reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND research reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.