The perception of the educational environment in multinational students from a dental medicine faculty in Romania

Introduction: Dental education comes with important challenges for the faculties as well as for the students. Its evolving nature leads to the constant adoption of new practices and techniques. Thus, the learning environment is in continuous development. This study aimed to describe a sample of senior undergraduate student's perceptions of their learning environment.

Methods: Students (both Romanian and international) enrolled in the 6th year at the Faculty of Dental Medicine from a Romanian University completed the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM). The scale measures students' perceptions of the education environment using five domains: Learning, Teaching, Academic self-perception, Atmosphere and Social self-perception. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, non-parametric and univariate statistics for group comparison.

Results: Participants (N = 259, Romanian = 111, International = 148) had a good perception of their learning environment, with a total DREEM score of 117.82 out of 200. Still, they had a lower score in the areas of Academic and Social self-perception. The international students had more negative perceptions of the learning environment compared to the Romanian ones. The French-speaking students had the lowest scores on most of the areas.

Conclusions: Although the perception of medical dentistry education is generally good, international students are not as satisfied with the learning environment. The students' experiences could be improved by providing them with more social support. Also, it is important to address the needs of international students in order to create a more satisfying environment for them.