Faculty of Dentistry: Hong Kong’s Only Dental School

This article belongs to the Dentistry section of Module 11 Medicine/Hospitals in the “HKU Wild History” collection. The Faculty of Dentistry, University of Hong Kong, is Hong Kong’s sole institution offering undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in dentistry, with the Prince Philip Dental Hospital as its teaching base, and holds a record of having been ranked world No.1 three years running in the QS World University Rankings by Subject. This piece traces its history, unique status, teaching hospital, BDS programme, and ranking position.

For the Faculty of Medicine (Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine), see ./li-ka-shing-faculty-of-medicine-2.md; for teaching hospitals such as Queen Mary Hospital, see ./teaching-hospitals.md; for a university-wide perspective on subject rankings, see ../03-rankings/. This module belongs to the 00–12 reference zone and carries no credibility badges. Data current as of June 2026.

# 1. At a Glance

The Faculty of Dentistry occupies a rare position of absolute uniqueness on Hong Kong’s higher education map: it is the only dental school in the territory. Every locally trained dentist in Hong Kong graduates from this single faculty. That unique status, combined with its top-tier international rankings, makes the Faculty one of HKU’s most recognisable schools abroad.

# 2. History: From a Shortage of Dentists to Hong Kong’s Only Dental School

# 2.1 Founding Background (1976–1982)

The Faculty was born out of Hong Kong’s long-standing post-war shortage of dentists. According to the English Wikipedia entry for the Faculty^※ and the Faculty’s official About page^※, the timeline unfolded as follows:

• In 1976, HKU set up a Dental Education Advisory Committee, tasked with strategic planning for a dental school and curriculum^※.
• In 1978, then Vice-Chancellor Rayson Huang announced that HKU would launch a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree, with dental education to begin from 1980^※.
• Initially, dental students attended classes within the Faculty of Medicine, only moving out after the Faculty of Dentistry was formally established in 1982^※.
• The Faculty of Dentistry was officially founded in 1982^※.

# 2.2 Prince Philip Dental Hospital (1981)

The Faculty’s teaching base is the Prince Philip Dental Hospital. According to the Wikipedia entry for the hospital^※:

• Prince Philip Dental Hospital is located at 34 Hospital Road, Sai Ying Pun, on Hong Kong Island. It was officially opened on 24 March 1981 by Prince Philip, then President of the British Dental Association^※.
• Costing about HK$200 million, the hospital was designed by the Architectural Services Department, with construction beginning in 1979, and was intended to address the shortage of dentists in Hong Kong^※.
• It housed Hong Kong’s first dental school and is today one of the world’s leading dental teaching hospitals, governed by its own ordinance, the Prince Philip Dental Hospital Ordinance^※.

The hospital opened one year before the Faculty itself (1981 vs. 1982), furnishing the nascent school with a dedicated, single-specialty teaching hospital from the outset. This marked a contrast with the Faculty of Medicine, which relies on the multi-disciplinary Queen Mary Hospital: the dental school had its own, discipline-specific teaching facility from day one.

# 3. The Only One in Hong Kong: What That Means

According to the Faculty, it is “Hong Kong’s sole provider of undergraduate and postgraduate dental degrees”^※. This “sole” status carries several implications:

1. Training Monopoly: Every locally trained dentist in Hong Kong receives their undergraduate education from this single faculty.
2. Only Teaching Hospital: Prince Philip Dental Hospital is Hong Kong’s only dental teaching hospital^※.
3. Hard Capacity Ceiling: According to the Faculty’s undergraduate admissions information^※, the UGC-approved BDS intake has already reached the physical capacity limit of the teaching hospital, which is why undergraduate intake has been maintained at roughly 90 per year over the long term.

This “sole provider” status also means that Hong Kong’s supply of dentists is, to a significant extent, constrained by the production capacity of this single faculty—a structural fact frequently invoked in discussions of Hong Kong’s dental manpower policy.

# 4. World-Class Rankings

What the Faculty is best known for is its performance in the QS World University Rankings by Subject (Dentistry).

# 4.1 Three Consecutive Years as World No.1 (2016–2018)

As stated in an HKU press release from 2018^※, the Faculty “continued to be ranked No. 1 in the world among 364 institutions from various countries for Dentistry” – meaning it achieved the world No.1 spot for three consecutive years: 2016, 2017, and 2018.

# 4.2 Recent Years: Consistently Among the Global Top

The Faculty has since sustained its position near the very top:

According to an account on the Faculty’s website^※, the Faculty has ranked in the world’s top three for eight of the past ten years (2015–2024). As a reference archive, this library records the rankings as per official press releases; for a discussion of ranking methodology limitations and year-on-year variation, see the university-wide rankings section at ../03-rankings/.

# 5. Flagship Undergraduate Programme: BDS

According to the Faculty’s undergraduate admissions page^※, the BDS programme is primarily delivered at Prince Philip Dental Hospital; students also attend classes in general medical and surgical wards at HKU’s Faculty of Medicine and Department of Surgery, and undertake learning at the oral and maxillofacial surgery wards and operating theatres of Queen Mary Hospital, and at various dental clinics and oral health education sites across Hong Kong.

Per the Wikipedia entry for the Faculty^※, postgraduate programmes span specialist master’s degrees in endodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics, and implant dentistry, with durations ranging from one to three years. From 1 April 2025, BDS graduates are required to complete a one-year internship before full registration as a dentist^※.

# 5.1 Scale and Internationalisation

According to the Faculty’s “About the Faculty” page^※, as of recent years the Faculty has drawn academic staff from 19 countries/regions, students from 22 countries/regions, and alumni spanning 45 countries/regions; 21 of its full-time academic staff were included in the 2025 list of “World’s Top 2% Scientists”. (These internationalisation and academic indicators are as stated on the Faculty’s own website and are reproduced here as they appear.)

# 6. See Also

• Faculty of Medicine (Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine), the Five Schools, and MBBS: ./li-ka-shing-faculty-of-medicine-2.md
• Teaching hospitals (including oral and maxillofacial surgery at Queen Mary): ./teaching-hospitals.md
• Clinical departmental research strengths: ./departments-and-strengths.md
• University-wide subject rankings (including discussion of dentistry ranking methodology): ../03-rankings/