LAHORE – After University of Health Sciences (UHS), Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) o Friday converted four-year BDS (dental) degree programme into five years.
The BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) degree would now be a five-year program me instead of the previous four years.
The PMDC issued instructions to all universities in Pakistan. The council confirmed that globally, the BDS degree is a five years long programme.
UHS had already converted the BDS degree to a five-year program. The Vice-Chancellor of UHS had informed PMDC about this change.
In an online meeting with PMDC officials, the new five-year curriculum framework was presented.
Following this, the Council issued a notice to all medical universities in Pakistan.
Pakistani graduates with a four-year degree have been facing difficulties in pursuing education and job opportunities abroad.
The PMDC decided to convert the four-year BDS degree programme into a five-year degree course.
As per the new system, the 5th year of the degree would be a clerkship after which a one-year house job would be required.
The council said that the decision to make BDS a five-year program would be implemented from the 2024-25 sessions. The universities would issue new transcripts to previous dental graduates in order to bring the degree to an equal level.
For former dental graduates, the house job would be recognized as a clerkship year.
PMDC also started working on preparing comprehensive curricular guidelines for the BDS programme.
