Dental education will also be affected by changes in the
university environment. Financial pressures on educational
institutions undoubtedly will persist, although their severity
may vary over time and across schools. Universities—and
government policymakers—will continue to reevaluate their
programs—adding, deleting, and restructuring them. Procedural
changes in areas such as financial management, information
systems, tenure, evaluation of educational outcomes, and
accreditation may make life more difficult for educators in some
ways and easier in others. Academic health centers will be under
stress from the same changes in health care organization and
financing that will affect dental schools, and in some respects,
the impact of these changes may be more traumatic for medical
schools and university hospitals than for dental schools.
Overall, the world of higher education is likely to become less
stable and thus more unpredictable and stressful for its
constituent parts. The implications of these trends and