Dental education is regarded as a complex, demanding and often stressful pedagogical procedure. Undergraduates, while enrolled in programmes of 4-6 years duration, are required to attain a unique and diverse collection of competences. Despite the major differences in educational systems, philosophies, methods and resources available worldwide, dental students' views regarding their education appear to be relatively convergent. This paper summarizes dental students' standpoint of their studies, showcases their experiences in different educational settings and discusses the characteristics of a positive academic environment. It is a consensus opinion that the 'students' perspective' should be taken into consideration in all discussions and decisions regarding dental education. Moreover, it is suggested that the set of recommendations proposed can improve students' quality of life and well-being, enhance their total educational experience and positively influence their future careers as oral health physicians.

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Extant research suggests that student loyalty, a strong bond between the student and university, positively affects important student outcomes, most notably retention. In this article, we advance the notion that academic advisors should become managers of the student–university relationship. We examine the correlation between respondents' perceived quality of academic advising and their loyalty to the university as measured by our recently developed Student University Loyalty Instrument, administered to 1,207 undergraduates at three comprehensive midwestern institutions. Results suggest that a positive relationship exists between the perceived quality of academic advising and student loyalty, other meaningful indicators of the student–university relationship, and specific student demographic characteristics. Recommendations for academic advising practice are shared.

Mathematical and computational methods are vital to many areas of contemporary biological research, such as genomics, molecular modeling, structural biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, neurobiology, and systems biology. As such, the contemporary life science student needs to be exposed to, if not well-versed in, many areas of mathematics to keep pace. However, traditional ways of teaching mathematics may not be able to provide life science majors the skills and experiences necessary to effectively use mathematics in their careers as practitioners and/or researchers, as these skills and experiences (for example, mathematical modeling and interdisciplinary collaboration) are difficult to teach using lecture-style approaches. In this paper the authors describe the implementation and assessment of a flipped-classroom approach to teaching a sophomore-level mathematical biology course for life science majors.

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