Professional competence in final-year dental undergraduates: assessment of students admitted by individualised selection and through traditional modes.

In 1993, a new admission system was introduced at the Dental School, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. One-third, and subsequently 60% of the students were admitted through an individualised selection system, and the remainder through traditional modes, using secondary school matriculation scores, or a university standard aptitude test. In this study, professional competence of final year undergraduates, assessed by faculty members, was related to mode of admission. The participating faculty members had tutored the students in the adult comprehensive care clinic for 1-3 semesters. 13 faculty members assessed students from 3 freshman intakes. A specially designed protocol was used, comprising 7 different criteria to be graded on a scale of 1 to 5, and one overall rating on a scale of 1 to 7. The faculty members were also asked to nominate which of the 7 criteria they considered most important for the overall rating: (A) knowledge, (B) initiative, (C) responsibility and judgement, (D) patient contact, (E) clinical skills, (F) co-operative approach and (G) commitment and motivation. Responsibility and judgement (n=11) and knowledge (n=6) were rated as the most important criteria. The evaluation of professional competence using the overall rating as a score shows a better median value (M=5.5) for the individualised group than for the traditional group (M=5.0). There was little or no difference between the 2 groups in median values for the most important 2 criteria, (C and A), but for the individualised group, the interval for the inter-quartile range (IQR) was not only higher, but also more homogeneous. It is concluded that by final year, students originally admitted by individual selection seem to be more professionally competent than classmates admitted on traditional university entrance scores.