It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the Faculty of Dentistry. Our faculty, which is ranked first in dentistry education in our country today, has made its mission to provide world-class education with the expert academic staff and studies. I would like to express that all students, faculty, staff and alumni are the part of a collegial community at our faculty.In the 2021-2022 academic year, Hacettepe University Faculty of Dentistry has provided education and training to 791 dentistry and 127 specialty students with 75 faculty members and 139 administrative staff. Eight specialists and 1 dentist have attended to one of the new doctorate programs, Oral Biology and Community Oral and Dental Health, that had started in 2018. In the faculty clinics, 120 and 70 students, from Oral Health and Radiology Technician programs belonging to Hacettepe University, respectively, have received hands-on training. To date, 4263 dentists, 553 dentists with doctorate degrees and 125 specialists had graduated from our faculty. If I were to talk about myself, I was born in Ankara in 1965. All of my education and working life was spent at Hacettepe University, and it still continues. After completing my undergraduate and doctoral studies, I served as faculty and board members, chair of orthodontics department and vice dean throughout my academic career. As the Vice Dean in charge of education, I carried out the duties of Bologna integration studies, curriculum update, preparation of the self-assessment report, coordination of the international external assessment visit, head of the education commission, specialty education commission, scholarship commission and quality commission. I was appointed as the Dean of Hacettepe University Faculty of Dentistry on June 21 2021. I am very happy and proud to be leading our faculty for three years. As in the whole world, one of the sectors most affected by the pandemic in our country has been the dentistry practices. Nevertheless, our faculty provided the conditions required by the pandemic conditions, continued patient treatment, and provided dental treatment services to 55 thousand patients this year. One of our biggest goals for the next year will be achieving digital transformation in our faculty and keep up with the digital age. I am pleased to continue our activities focused on quality in education, research and community service in order to maintain and further the mission of our faculty.
Thank you to everyone to have been with on this path for their support.
December 1, 2021