Transforming community oral health in Egypt: UCL and NGU’s pioneering dental school

When initial discussions between UCL and NGU began in 2016, the ambition was monumental: to establish a brand-new, world-class undergraduate School of Medicine, School of Pharmacy and School of Dentistry, simultaneously. 

The partnership, facilitated by UCL Consultants, saw UCL experts lead the comprehensive design and quality assurance of the entire curricula for the three schools. 

While UCL already offered established undergraduate programmes in medicine and pharmacy, dentistry presented a unique challenge, given that the UCL Eastman Dental Institute exclusively delivers postgraduate education. 

Today, the NGU School of Dentistry operates across three modern buildings on the NGU campus, featuring 198 fully-equipped dental chair units for direct patient care. The scale of investment in training infrastructure is significant, encompassing three simulator laboratories with 118 manikin stations, complete with video demonstration screens for honing clinical skills.

Professor Stephen Porter, from the UCL Eastman Dental Institute, has been the academic driving force behind the collaboration since its inception, working alongside Professor Randa Elsalawy, the founding Dean of NGU School of Dentistry (SOD). He recalls the sheer scale of the challenge:

“We started by designing a modern, modular curriculum from the ground up. We introduced horizontal and vertical integration, meaning that we broke down traditional academic silos to blend the basic sciences together, and introduced clinical, patient-facing skills much earlier in the students’ journey. For the first five years, we helped create the entire educational framework, from individual lecture topics to clinical assessment and examination questions. Now that the school is successfully up and running, our overall role has evolved to quality assurance and keeping the academic delivery on track.”

This robust framework proved its resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure students faced no delays in completing their five-year programme, the teams collaborated to rapidly ‘flip’ the curriculum. This involved temporarily front-loading the theoretical coursework so it could be delivered remotely, while shifting the essential hands-on clinical training to a later date when it was safe to return to the campus clinics. Once the pandemic subsided, the curriculum seamlessly flipped back to its original integrated structure. This required substantial adjustments and continuous fine‑tuning from Professor Randa and the SOD staff members, under the guidance of the UCL Eastman Dental Institute, to accommodate these abrupt changes. 

Transforming oral health in the community

Perhaps the most profound outcome of the collaboration is its impact on the local population. Because clinical practice is essential to dental education, the school requires a steady stream of patients. Professor Randa Elsalawy stated: “One of my initial concerns was ensuring a sufficient number of patients for my students, given the university’s remote location. Fortunately, I established an MOU with the Dental Sector of the Ministry of Health, allowing us to bring patients from underprivileged communities surrounding the university and ensure adequate clinical training opportunities for our students”

To bridge the gap between healthcare needs and educational requirements, NGU implemented a remarkable logistical operation.

The school provides free transportation, shuttling patients and their families from deprived areas in Cairo directly to the high-tech university clinics, including a dedicated 14-chair community-based clinic. To manage this, Prof. Randa and NGU SOD staff, in collaboration with the NGU School of Information Technology, developed bespoke software called “TONGUE” (TO NGU Electronic). This system integrates with patient records and ensures patients receive comprehensive care while accurately matching their specific dental needs with the educational requirements of students and residents.

The academic metrics are equally impressive. The student intake has grown from 49 in 2016/17 to 139 in 2025/26 and the school now graduates 137 dentists a year, up from 37 in its early cohorts. Crucially, 100% of these graduates have passed the National Licensing Examination, proving they are highly capable and fit to practice. The undergraduate course has also secured official approval from the Egyptian regulator, NAQAEE (National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education).

Looking ahead, the school aims to establish its own NGU-branded postgraduate programmes. Professor Randa, the Dean of the School of Dentistry, is actively working on developing postgraduate degrees across various specialisations to further the education of NGU undergraduates and offer them exceptional postgraduate pathways. As a result, NGU SOD will solidify its position as a regional hub for dental education in the Middle East and North Africa.

Returning lessons to the UK

The success of the NGU model also offers compelling insights for the UK. Professor Porter believes aspects of the Egyptian framework – which seamlessly blends rigorous education with localised community care – could potentially be adapted to address domestic challenges.

“The National Health Service has a pressing need to provide routine oral healthcare in underserved areas. If we were to establish a dental school in an area of deprivation, we could solve multiple problems at once. You could introduce a ‘cadetship’ model, where students have their fees paid or receive a salary, and in return, they commit to working in that specific area for five to seven years post-graduation. Because dental students actively provide care during their training, the community benefits immediately.”

Translating such a massive, multi-year international vision into reality required robust administrative and contractual foundations. Professor Porter credits UCL Consultants with making the complex partnership feasible.

“UCLC smoothed the wheels of this entire collaboration. From opening doors, to providing the crucial framework needed for representation and international agreements, they were central to making this happen. It has ultimately brought a significant new income stream to the Institute and showed us what is truly possible on a global scale.”

Images

Provided by Newgiza University

Related links

UCL launches academic collaboration with Egypt’s New Giza University (February 2016)

New University, new collaboration (October 2016)

New Giza University (NGU) School of Dentistry Clinic established (April 2019) 

Newgiza University & UCL collaborate to train engineering leaders of the future (October 2019)

UCL and Newgiza University collaborate to train tomorrow’s engineers today (January 2021)