EDSA-European Dental Sudents' Association

The European Dental Students Association (EDSA) was founded in Paris in November 1988.
Now, the EDSA represents over 65,000 dental students in the European region.

More and more dental students do see the need of coming together and talk about their differences but even more about the things they have in common.

The goals of the organisation are:

*to inform students about the E.C. organisation and politics in relation to dentistry;
*to promote, inquire and describe the standardisation of dental curriculam within European dental schools;
*to promote exchange programs and encourage students to take part in these programs;
*encourage national dental students associations to co-operate on a national level;
*to create possibilities to encourage students to meet each other on an individual level.

Twice a year, all the delegates of the European Dental Students Association come together to brainstorm for new projects and keep improving the existing. Furthermore, we discuss dental politics, social and domestic affairs. Representatives of the national members (full and prospective) attend these general assemblies.

Main activities:

*EDSA Magazine: An editorial staff take care of the production of a magazine that is distributed to each dental student in Europe for free (20,000 copies). The content differs each time, but there are some subjects that do appear regularly (dental school presentation, book review and EDSA-activities).
*EDSA International Congress: Every second year we have a congress where students from around Europe can attend and listen to lectures, present their scientific research, exchange ideas and socialise.
*Exchange working group: This working group is collecting information about dental curriculum in Europe. The results will be used for comparing quality and quantity of the dentistry curriculam in Europe and to make exchange between faculties easier.
*Student mobility: The EDSA invites students to visit dental schools in another country. The EDSA collects the addresses and provides students with these addressees. An exchange to faculties in Europe is one of our main goals at this time.
*External relations: The EDSA has relations with a lot of organisations as IADS (International Association of Dental Students); Comite de liaison (gathering of the national associations of the dental profession of the European Community); FDI-EURO (Federation Dentaire International - European Region); ADEE (Association for Dental Education in Europe); EMSA and EPSA (European Medical and Pharmaceutical Students Association).