Dental Education Economics: Challenges and Innovative Strategies

This article reviews current dental education economic challenges such as increasing student tuition and debt, decreasing funds for faculty salaries and the associated faculty shortage, and the high cost of clinic operations and their effect on the future of dentistry. Management tactics to address these issues are also reviewed. Despite recent efforts to change the clinical education model, implementation of proposed faculty recruitment and compensation programs, and creation of education- corporate partnerships, the authors argue that the current economics of public dental education is not sustainable. To remain viable, the dental education system must adopt transformational actions to re-engineer the program for long-term stability. The proposed re-engineering includes strategies in the following three areas: 1) educational process redesign, 2) reduction and redistribution of time in dental school, and 3) development of a regional curriculum. The intent of these strategies is to address the financial challenges, while educating adequate numbers of dentists at a reasonable cost to both the student and the institution in addition to maintaining dental education within research universities as a learned profession

Transforming higher education in whose image? Exploring the concept of the world-class university in Europe and Asia

In order to enhance their global competitiveness, governments in Europe and Asia have started to conduct comprehensive reviews of and implement plans to restructure their higher education systems, with attempts to transform their higher education systems in the image of \u27world-class\u27 university. With strong intentions to perform well in the Global University Ranking, universities in Europe and Asia have adopted different reform measures to enhance their research performance. Central to the quest for the world-class status, we have witnessed the emerging global model (EGM) of the research university in the 21st century, a description of the top stratum of research universities worldwide. It is against this particular context that different forms of university research networks, university alliance or international research consortia have evolved to promote international collaboration aiming at higher ranking in the global university league. The principal goal of this article aims at critically examining the notions and practices of what it means to be a world-class university in the context of Europe and Asia, especially attempting to examine the impacts of the quest for the world-class status on higher education in Europe and Asia

Transforming Higher Education In Whose Image? Exploring the Concept of the "WorldClass" University in Europe and Asia

In order to enhance their global competitiveness, governments in Europe and Asia have started to conduct comprehensive reviews of and implement plans to restructure their higher education systems, with attempts to transform their higher education systems in the image of ‘world-class’ university. With strong intentions to perform well in the Global University Ranking, universities in Europe and Asia have adopted different reform measures to enhance their research performance. Central to the quest for the world-class status, we have witnessed the emerging global model (EGM) of the research university in the 21st century, a description of the top stratum of research universities worldwide. It is against this particular context that different forms of university research networks, university alliance or international research consortia have evolved to promote international collaboration aiming at higher ranking in the global university league. The principal goal of this article aims at critically examining the notions and practices of what it means to be a world-class university in the context of Europe and Asia, especially attempting to examine the impacts of the quest for the world-class status on higher education in Europe and Asia

PRKDC mutations in a SCID patient with profound neurological abnormalities

The DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs; encoded by PRKDC) functions in DNA non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ), the major DNA double strand break (DSB) rejoining pathway. NHEJ also functions during lymphocyte development, joining V(D)J recombination intermediates during antigen receptor gene assembly. Here, we describe a patient with compound heterozygous mutations in PRKDC, low DNA-PKcs expression, barely detectable DNA-PK kinase activity, and impaired DSB repair. In a heterologous expression system, we found that one of the PRKDC mutations inactivated DNA-PKcs, while the other resulted in dramatically diminished but detectable residual function. The patient suffered SCID with reduced or absent T and B cells, as predicted from PRKDC-deficient animal models. Unexpectedly, the patient was also dysmorphic; showed severe growth failure, microcephaly, and seizures; and had profound, globally impaired neurological function. MRI scans revealed microcephaly-associated cortical and hippocampal dysplasia and progressive atrophy over 2 years of life. These neurological features were markedly more severe than those observed in patients with deficiencies in other NHEJ proteins. Although loss of DNA-PKcs in mice, dogs, and horses was previously shown not to impair neuronal development, our findings demonstrate a stringent requirement for DNA-PKcs during human neuronal development and suggest that high DNA-PK protein expression is required to sustain efficient pre- and postnatal neurogenesis