University of Sydney Handbooks - 2016 Archive

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Postgraduate Coursework

What are Postgraduate courses?

Postgraduate courses are higher award courses such as graduate certificates, graduate diplomas, master's degrees and doctorates.

The Faculty of Dentistry offers postgraduate coursework study in two major areas:

  • Dental Medicine; and
  • Clinical Dentistry.


The following postgraduate coursework degrees, diplomas and certificate in these areas are available through the Faculty:

  • Doctor of Clinical Dentistry (Oral Medicine)*
  • Doctor of Clinical Dentistry (Orthodontics)*
  • Doctor of Clinical Dentistry (Paediatric Dentistry)*
  • Doctor of Clinical Dentistry (Periodontics)*
  • Doctor of Clinical Dentistry (Prosthodontics)*
  • Doctor of Clinical Dentistry (Special Care Dentistry)*
  • Doctor of Clinical Dentistry (Oral Surgery)*
  • Doctor of Dental Medicine*
  • Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry (Advanced Restorative)*
  • Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry (Child Health)
  • Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry (Conscious Sedation and Pain Control)*
  • Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry (Hospital Dentistry)
  • Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry (Oral Biology)
  • Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry (Oral Implants)*
  • Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry (Tooth Mechanics)
  • Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry (Surgical Dentistry)*
  • Graduate Certificate in Clinical Dentistry (Advanced Restorative)*
  • Graduate Certificate in Clinical Dentistry (Child Health)
  • Graduate Certificate in Clinical Dentistry (Hospital Dentistry)
  • Graduate Certificate in Clinical Dentistry (Oral Biology)
  • Graduate Certificate in Clinical Dentistry (Oral Rehabilitation)*
  • Graduate Certificate in Clinical Dentistry (Tooth Mechanics)
  • Graduate Certificate in Clinical Dentistry (Surgical Dentistry)

* Courses available for direct admission. The remaining courses are ‘exit only’ qualifications.

Students with an interest in the public health aspects of oral health can apply through the School of Public Health, Sydney Medical School, to undertake a Master of International Public Health or Master of Public Health with a focus on Population Oral Health. Information about this course can be found on the Faculty of Dentistry website: http://sydney.edu.au/dentistry/student/postgrad.php

What is a Coursework course?

Coursework courses are similar to undergraduate study in that the student enrols in a set of units of study, with largely predetermined content and predetermined assessment. The units of study can be offered face to face, with lectures and tutorials, or offered online with set readings and a web-based forum or similar, or a combination of both. Each unit of study has a credit point value and each course has a defined number of credit points the student must attain to be awarded the qualification.

Governance, including the requirements for all postgraduate degrees, are covered in the individual chapters relating to the area of study. The information in the chapters provides a summary and is subordinate to the provisions contained within the relevant degree resolutions.

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Embedded courses

Coursework courses in the Faculty of Dentistry include graduate certificates, graduate diplomas and master's degrees. Some of these are stand-alone but many of them are known as 'embedded' or 'articulated' courses. This means that the two or three levels involved are linked with overlapping content so that a student may progress through the levels seamlessly, or transfer from a higher level and be awarded a qualification with a smaller load.

For example a student may be unsure about undertaking study again after a protracted period away, so only requests admission to the graduate certificate. However, the student finds the study so relevant to their work that they decide to continue with the graduate diploma. Instead of having to reapply and repeat units of study, the student can request a transfer to the graduate diploma with full credit for their studies in the graduate certificate.

Alternatively, a student may enrol in the master's degree, but part of the way through is posted overseas for work and can't continue. The student can apply to graduate with the highest level of award for which they have satisfied the requirements, thereby adding a qualification to their list of achievements.

Another example is that a year after completing a graduate certificate, a student can apply to undertake the graduate diploma and, if accepted, will be given credit for the units of study completed in the graduate certificate.

Note that time limits do apply for returning students and that some of the courses offered are 'exit only' qualifications.

Transfer between levels is not automatic. A student must request a transfer. The request is considered by the course coordinator in the first instance, who makes a recommendation to the Chair of the Combined Board of Postgraduate Studies, who makes the final decision.

In the Faculty of Dentistry, the general structure of embedded courses is as follows:

  • a graduate certificate requires 24 credit points for award
  • a graduate diploma requires 48 credit points
  • a professional masters degree requires 144 or 192 credit points.
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Units of Study

Units of study are the building blocks of all coursework courses, each with an associated credit point value. Each award course has a number of credit points necessary for completion of the course, and these credit points are gained through successfully completing units of study.

The Tables of the Units of Study for each area of study outline the program that a student must successfully complete in order to be awarded the relevant qualification.

Each following chapter provides a description of a postgraduate course offered through the Faculty of Dentistry, the resolutions governing that course and an outlines of requirements of units of study for each course.

Some units of study have restrictions on who may enrol in the unit. The three types of restrictions are prerequisites, corequisites and prohibitions.

Prerequisites
Enrolment in a unit may only be possible if students have already completed a particular unit of study, the prerequisite.

For example, the unit of study DENT5302 Basic Life Support and Resuscitation B builds on the content of DENT5300, and without having completed DENT5300, students will not be able to understand and complete DENT5302. Hence, DENT5300 is a prerequisite for DENT53002.

Corequisites
A corequisite is where a unit of study requires a student to have already completed a second unit of study, or to enrol in it at the same time.

For example, DENT5300 Basic Life Support and Resuscitation A requires students to also enrol in DENT5301 Theory and Practice of Dental Sedation A during the same semester.

Prohibitions
A prohibition is where a student may not enrol in a unit of study if they have already completed the unit with a prohibition against it.

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