Clinical academic staffing levels at a South African dental school

Abstract

The inadequacy and skewed distribution of oral health personnel in South Africa are well-documented. Surprisingly, the staffing levels at dental schools have not previously been described. To determine the number of full-time equivalent clinical academic staff working at the dental school of the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University for the five-year period 2015 to 2019.A retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study. Data related to the demographic characteristics and employment types of clinical academic staff working at the dental school between January 2015 and December 2019 were acquired from annual reports, payroll records and school calendars and used to calculate full-time equivalents (FTE) by academic ranks and specialties. Females and Black general dental practitioners at lecturer level constituted the majority of staff. FTE of staff at lecturer level increased sharply between 2016 and 2017 (52.7 FTE vs 65.9 FTE respectively) and have since graduall declined. FTEs of staff at senior lecturer (15.8FTE vs 12.1FTE) and professorial (7.8 FTE vs 5.3FTE) levels have continued to decline. FTEs of staff working in the majority of specialties have decreased while staffing levels in Prosthodontics and Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery have increased. Staffing levels declined between 2015 and 2019