Dentistry
Cardiff University
UCAS Code: A200 | Bachelor of Dental Surgery - BDS
Cardiff University
UCAS Code: A200 | Bachelor of Dental Surgery - BDS
Entry requirements
A level
Must include Biology and Chemistry. You will need to pass the science practical element of the A-level if this is part of your programme of study. Please see the School-level admissions policy for details on entry requirements in you are applying as a graduate.
GCSE/National 4/National 5
You must have: - English language or Welsh language at GCSE grade B/6 or an equivalent. If you require a Student visa, you must ensure your language qualification complies with UKVI requirements. - and six other GCSEs including grade AA/77 in Double Award science or Biology and Chemistry as separate subjects, or equivalent qualifications (level, subjects and grade).
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
36 overall or 666 in 3 HL subjects. Must include grade 6 in HL Biology and Chemistry. Please see the School-level admissions policy for details on entry requirements in you are applying as a graduate.
The Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate will be accepted in lieu of one A Level at the A Level grades specified, excluding any subject specific requirements.
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About this course
At the end of this five-year programme you will have the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to register with the General Dental Council (GDC). This will allow you to complete your Dental Foundation Training (DFT) year, and ultimately join the professional world of dentistry.
The School of Dentistry is located in the University Dental Hospital on Cardiff University’s Heath Park campus, a 53-acre site shared with the University Hospital of Wales. This is where the majority of clinical teaching takes place on our three undergraduate programmes. With around 100 undergraduate students per year, we are still a relatively small dental school. We believe that this helps facilitate a friendly and supportive sense of community ensuring that our students succeed. In the NSS 2015, 97% of our students agreed that staff were good at explaining things.
Studying at the only Dental Hospital in Wales you will have the opportunity to serve and manage patients of diverse ages and backgrounds with a wide range of dental diseases including some of the more unusual oral cancers.
Clinical skills are developed in the School’s recently refurbished £2.2M clinical skills laboratory, a facility that closely simulates the real clinical experience, allowing you to prepare and practice for patient care. You will have the opportunity to train alongside Dental Therapists, Dental Hygienists and Dentists learning the same skills. This will support your understanding of how your role fits into the dental team environment in preparation for when you qualify and commence practice.
The dedicated Dental Library houses an extensive collection of books and journals to aid your learning. You will also have access to an undergraduate IT suite and to a new £1.5M redevelopment of lecture theatres and student social spaces on the Heath Park campus.
You will be taught by a dedicated team of academic clinical staff and consultants within the dental hospital and in the latter years of the course clinical staff working in the primary care environment. The quality of the teaching you will receive has recently been ranked the best in the UK for dentistry (Guardian’s University Guide 2016). The School's courses were given a maximum 100 out of 100 score.
Our students have one of the best employability records amongst the UK dental schools, in 2015, 99% of our undergraduate students secured a UK Dental Foundation Training (DFT) placement.
**Distinctive features**
- Cardiff University’s School of Dentistry was ranked in the Top 10 for dentistry in the UK (The Complete University Guide 2022) and Top 60 globally for dentistry in the 2021 QS World University Rankings.
- The BDS course is delivered in the only Dental hospital in Wales.
- Students benefit from early clinical exposure in year one.
- The course offers extensive clinical training in the University Dental Hospital clinics in addition to outreach clinical teaching facilities in purpose built education units, community dental service clinics and district general hospitals.
Tuition fees
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Extra funding
Cardiff University has many scholarships on offer to our prospective students. Please see our website at http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/funding/scholarships for further information.
The Uni
Main Site - Cardiff
School of Dentistry
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Dentistry
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Dentistry
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
If you want a stable, well-paid career, then dentistry is an excellent choice. Starting salaries rival those for medicine, almost all graduates get jobs in dentistry on leaving their course and there are roles all around the country. It is a pretty select course, with only a little over a thousand graduates a year, but for that group, the rewards can be excellent.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Dentistry
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£41k
£49k
£53k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).
This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.
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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.
You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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