Career Decisions of Undergraduate Dental

Students at the University of Science and

Technology, Yemen
Saeed M. Banabilh, B.D.S., M.Sc., Ph.D.
Abstract: Students reasons for choosing dentistry as a profession have not been well documented, especially in the developing countries. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the reasons why undergraduate Yemeni dental students who
attended the University of Science and Technology (UST) chose dentistry as a career. A total of 300 out of 500 responses were
recorded for this study, a response rate of 60 percent. An anonymous questionnaire was administered to dental students at UST,
and a chi-square test was used for statistical analysis of the data. The results showed that students chose dentistry as a career for
the following reasons: economic (easy to find jobs, 44.7 percent); vocational (I like to treat people to improve their health, 39.0
percent); personal (my family dentists encouragement, 37.3 percent); and professional (I can work in many fields, 33.0 percent).
When group and item scores were compared between genders, statistically significant differences were only found for vocational
reasons (p<0.05). In conclusion, the reasons Yemeni dental students chose dentistry as a profession were primarily economic,
then vocational. However, vocational reasons were found to be the significant factors for choosing dentistry as a career by both
genders in this group of UST Yemeni dental students.
Dr. Banabilh is Research and Postgraduate Course Director, School of Medical Sciences, and Assistant Professor and Head
of Orthodontics Department, School of Dental Sciences, University of Science and Technology, Sanaa, Republic of Yemen.
Direct correspondence and requests for reprints to Dr. Saeed Banabilh, School of Dental Sciences, University of Science and
Technology, 13064 Sanaa, Republic of Yemen; 967-1648980 phone; 967-1530689 fax; banabilh23@gmail.com.
Keywords: dental students, academic careers, career decision, Yemen
Submitted for publication 12/22/11; accepted 4/13/12

espite many studies in medical education

fields over the last few years, students reasons for choosing dentistry as a profession
have not been well documented by dental educators,
especially in the developing countries. Students
motivations for entering dentistry, as well as schools
requirements and selection processes, vary considerably between countries and even within a single
country. These situations place great responsibility on
dental schools to select the most suitable applicants,
both professionally and socially, for the ultimate
benefit of communities.1
In addition, an understanding of the students
reasons for attending a dental school can be beneficial
in many ways. First, it may help recruiters in designing appropriate and effective recruitment materials.2
Second, understanding the students reasons may aid
recruiters by providing them with a complete and
accurate picture of the profession. Third, recruiters
can have insight into motivations, which could assist
in the evaluation of dental curricula. Fourth, a better
understanding of students reasons for entering the
dental profession may facilitate a fruitful interaction
between student and teacher.3
However, it seems that many factors, alone
or in combination, can contribute to the students
March 2013 Journal of Dental Education

choice/decision of dentistry as a career, and each of

these factors may vary between individuals. Previous
studies have found that students attend dental school
because they wish to be independent, serve others,
work with their hands, acquire social status and/or
financial security, be upwardly socially mobile, and
have a flexible work schedule.4 Nevertheless, these
reasons are not necessarily prioritized in the same
way for the male and female genders.5,6 For example,
most women have been found to choose dentistry
because they believe they will be able to balance
effectively their personal and professional lives as
dentists.7 Other studies found that females were also
less concerned than male students with the business
component of choosing a career and more concerned
with caring and people factors.1,6
In addition to investigations related to gender,
motivations related to country have been studied in the
United States,6 the United Kingdom,4,8 Ireland,9 Australia,10 Denmark,11 and France.12 However, all these
studies have been carried out in developed countries,
and it is clear there is scant evidence of this kind of
study in developing nations. Therefore, the aim of this
study was to determine why undergraduate Yemeni
dental students attending the University of Science
and Technology (UST) chose dentistry as a career.
331

Methods
After signing an informed consent, which was
reviewed and approved at the institutional level,
500 students enrolled in UST dental courses were
recruited for this study. An anonymous questionnaire
was distributed by the author and his assistants to
students from years 1 to 5 and to internship students
at the UST (Faculty of Dentistry) in Sanaa, Yemen.
UST was Yemens first private university, and it was
approved by the Ministry of Higher Education and
Research in 1994. The UST dentistry program lasts
five years, with the addition of one year of internship,
which can be completed either in the dental school or
in any hospital outside the dental school. Generally
speaking, entrance to the program depends on the
results of the Yemeni Certicate of General Secondary Education or its equivalent, and a high level of
academic performance (a high grade point average
[GPA]) is necessary for entry into a career as a dentist.
The inclusion criterion for this study was any
dental students who are Yemeni citizens. Exclusion
criteria consisted of the lack of informed consent or
willingness to participate in the study. The questionnaire used in the study was based on previous studies13,14 and included questions regarding the students
demographic and educational profile. Four questions
addressed their economic (easy to find jobs, I can
make lots of money, stable jobs, higher payment),
professional (I can work in many fields, I can do my
Table 1. Demographic and educational profile of students participating in study, by number and percentage
Variable

332

n (%)

Gender

Male

Female

69 (23.0%)
231 (77.0%)

Marital state

Single

Married

269 (89.7%)
31 (10.3%)

University study level

First year

Second year

Third year

Fourth year

Fifth year

Internship

26 (8.7%)
38 (12.7%)
64 (21.3%)
72 (24.0%)
91 (30.3%)
9 (3.0%)

Place of secondary education

Public

Private

163 (54.3%)
137 (45.7%)

own work, I can be my own boss, challenging and

interesting career), vocational (I like to interact, I like
to treat people to improve their health, I like to help
people), and personal reasons (I previously worked
in a field related to dentistry, my family dentist encouraged me, my family and friends) for choosing
dentistry as a career. Any of the alternatives for each of
the former four questions could be selected. The questionnaire was distributed to these students (closedended questions) after it was translated into Arabic by
the author of this study and then back-translated by
another native speaker to ensure comparability with
the original form. The Arabic version was pretested
on a small number of university students, and the
translation was further improved to ensure accuracy
of meaning. Subsequently, questionnaire validity and
reliability tests were carried out on a representative
sample of the Yemeni community in Sanaa to ensure
all questions were understood by the students.
The respondents were also asked to indicate
their level of agreement regarding eight persons who
may have influenced their selection of dentistry as
a career (self-motivation, father, mother, relative or
family friend, family dentist, other person within the
dental profession, vocational counselor, and school
teacher) utilizing a five-point scale (1=little influence to 5=strong influence). All data management
and statistical analyses were carried out using SPSS
version 14.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, US). Absolute
and percentage distributions were obtained for the
qualitative variables and age group. Mean, median,
and standard deviation were determined for the age
variable. Pearsons chi-square test was used. The
margin of error for interpretation of the statistical
tests was set at 5.0 percent.

Results
There were a total of 300 out of 500 responses
recorded for this study (the response rate for the study
was 60 percent). Table 1 shows the demographic
profile of 300 subjects classified according to age
and gender. The participants consisted of 231 (77.0
percent) females and sixty-nine (23.0 percent) males.
Students ages ranged from eighteen to thirty-two
years, with an overall mean of 22.8 years (2.1).
Regarding marital status, the results showed that
the majority of the participants were single (89.7
percent) and 10.3 percent were married. The results
showed that most participants were fifth-years (30.3
percent), followed by fourth-years (24.0 percent), and

Journal of Dental Education Volume 77, Number 3

that most of them had studied at a public school (54.3

percent), followed by a private school (45.7 percent).
The results related to the reasons for choosing
dentistry as a career by gender demonstrated that the
choice of profession for both genders was mainly due
to economic reasons (44.7 percent), vocational reasons (39.0 percent), personal reasons (37.3 percent),
and professional reasons (33.0 percent). When group
and item scores were compared between genders,
statistically significant differences were only found
for vocational reasons (p<0.05; Table 2).
Table 3 shows the dental education items.
Regarding the university staff, 52.7 percent reported
that the university has good staff. About 85.7 percent reported thinking they will still be in contact
with their dental school even after graduation. As
for dental license difficulty, 56.7 percent indicated
thinking they will not have any difficulty obtaining
a dental license, while 33.0 percent said they may
have some sort of difficulty. Working after graduation
items found that 64.0 percent of the sample expect
to work after graduating and 28.3 percent do not
feel they are going to work after graduation. In this
sample, 50.3 percent said they want to be specialists.
As for the duration of the dental school curriculum,
most of the students (68.0 percent) reported that their
dental curriculum was reasonable, while 22.7 percent

said it was too long. Data on persons influencing

selection of dentistry as a career are shown in Table
4. According to the calculation of total scores from
1 to 5 (little, medium, moderate, strong, and very
strong), the results showed that father, mother, and
self-motivation were the strongest influencing factors
in the choice of dentistry as a career. In addition, a
relative or family friend was often said to have played
an influential role in that decision.

Discussion
This study identified a number of factors directly related to choosing dentistry as a career by
Yemeni dental students who attended UST and data
on the persons who most influenced the selection
of this career. As the choice of a career is a critical
decision that has an obvious impact on a future life
pattern, it is important to understand the priorities and
sociodemographic backgrounds of those choosing
to study dentistry. This is because economic factors
may influence an individuals level of commitment
to the profession and the decision may affect ones
satisfaction with the career. While some individuals
enter careers with extensive knowledge and realistic
expectations, others may find themselves in occupations not really knowing why they were pushed in

Table 2. Respondents reasons for choosing dentistry as a career by gender, by number and percentage

Variable

Male Female M+F

n=69
n=231
n=300 p-value

Economic
Easy to find jobs.
I can make lots of money.
Stable jobs.
Payment is better.

32 (46.4%)
11 (15.9%)
13 (18.8%)
13 (18.8%)

102 (44.2%)
52 (22.5%)
50 (21.6%)
27 (11.7%)

134 (44.7%)
63 (21.0%)
63 (21.0%)
40 (13.3%)

Professional reasons
I can work in many fields.
I can do my own work.
I can be my own boss.
Challenging and interesting career.

23 (33.3%)
18 (26.1%)
15 (21.7%)
13 (18.8%)

76 (32.9%)
71 (30.7%)
45 (19.5%)
39 (16.9%)

99 (33.0%)
89 (29.7%)
60 (20.0%)
52 (17.3%)

0.34

0.88

Vocational
I like to interact with others.
26 (37.7%)
66 (28.6%)
92 (30.7%)
I like to treat people to improve their health.
17 (24.6%)
100 (34.3%)
117 (39.0%)
I like to help people.
26 (37.7%)
65 (28.1%)
91 (30.3%)
0.02*
Personal
I previously worked in fields related to dentistry.
My family dentist encouraged me.
My family and friends encouraged me.

30 (43.5%)
18 (26.1%)
21 (30.4%)

71 (30.7%)
94 (40.7%)
66 (28.6%)

101 (33.7%)
112 (37.3%)
87 (29.0%)

0.06

*Significant at p<0.05.

March 2013 Journal of Dental Education

333

that direction. Some also make career decisions by

taking the path advocated by their parents.14
This study, in contrast to the majority of published studies, examined the motives of a wide range
of undergraduate students from first to final years and
interns. Previous studies either have focused on new
entrants to dental school3,6,10,12 or students as they
prepare to leave dental school.9,14 It could be argued
that it is early for the first-year students to explore this
issue, as experiences after graduation may influence
students perceptions about career choice. Nevertheless, a study by Hallissey et al.9 found significant

Table 3. Responses of students surveyed on dental

education items
Item

Response

n (%)

Good staff

Yes
No
Undecided

158 (52.7%)
117 (39.0%)
25 (8.3%)

University contact

Yes
No
Undecided

257 (85.7%)
37 (12.3%)
6 (2.0%)

Dental license difficulty

Yes
No
Undecided

99 (33.0%)
170 (56.7%)
31 (10.3%)

Working after graduation

Yes
No
Undecided

192 (64.0%)
85 (28.3%)
23 (7.7%)

What kind of dentist you

will be in future

General dentist 60 (20.0%)

Educator
60 (20.0%)
Researcher
21 (7.0%)
Specialist
151 (50.3%)
Other
8 (2.7%)

Duration of the curriculum

Too long
Reasonable
Too short
Undecided

68 (22.7%)
204 (68.0%)
22 (7.3%)
6 (2.0%)

differences between the scores given to the factors

and categories of students. However, it is within the
overall aim of any research program to provide the
opportunity to relate these entire career views to
future career plans.
The male to female ratio in this study was
1:3.34, which indicates an increase in the number
of female students in dentistry in Yemen. Similar
findings have been reported in previous studies.15-17
Studies have also reported that more female students
take up dentistry because it allows for more flexible
working hours, because they can easily balance their
professional careers with the demands of domestic
life,7 and because they see dentistry as a way to work
with others, achieve financial gain and professional
prestige, and serve the community.18,19 These reports
are somewhat in agreement with the findings of this
study, in which more females said they chose dentistry because they can easily find jobs and because
they like to treat people to improve their health.
However, this study is not in agreement with AlBitar et al., which found that helping people was
the highest rated reason by Jordanian females,20 or
work done by Scarbecz and Ross regarding female
students in the United States.6
Concerning working after graduation, the
results of this study were that 28.3 percent of the
participants (7.3 males and 21.0 females) said they do
not feel they will work after graduation. This finding
may be explained by looking to the study respondents, as most of them were female, and females may
face difficulties in getting work after graduation due
to cultural restrictions. In addition to this, there are
also family reasons, as some Yemeni females have
a lot of family commitments and responsibilities
after they are married and so may be less motivated
to work after graduation. However, the reason some
Yemeni male students feel they will not work after

Table 4. Responses for person influencing students choice of dentistry as a career, by number and percentage
Influence on choice/decision
Self-motivation
Father
Mother
Relative or family friend
Family dentist
Other person within the dental profession
Vocational counselor
School teacher

334

Little

Medium

Moderate

Strong

Very Strong

51 (17.0%)
23 (7.7%)
16 (5.3%)
45 (15.0%)
86 (28.7%)
76 (25.3%)
108 (36.0%)
123 (41.0%)

18 (6.0%)
33 (11.0%)
35 (11.7%)
39 (13.0%)
54 (18.0%)
73 (24.3%)
92 (30.7%)
72 (24.0%)

53 (17.7%)
51 (17.0%)
63 (21.0%)
95 (31.7%)
99 (33.0%)
89 (29.7%)
72 (24.0%)
64 (21.3%)

61 (20.3%)
76 (25.3%)
77 (25.7%)
60 (20.0%)
32 (10.7%)
49 (16.3%)
18 (6.0%)
27 (9.0%)

117 (39.0%)
117 (39.0%)
109 (36.3%)
61 (20.3%)
29 (9.7%)
13 (4.3%)
10 (3.3%)
14 (4.7%)

Journal of Dental Education Volume 77, Number 3

graduation could be attributed to the feeling that this

field does not meet their expectations, and they may
find themselves in occupations not really knowing
why they were pushed in that direction.
This study found that the choice of dentistry as
a career was due to economic reasons (easy to find
jobs; 44.7 percent), vocational reasons (I like to treat
people to improve their health; 39.0 percent), personal reasons (my family dentists encouragement;
37.3 percent), and professional reasons (I can work
in many fields; 33.0 percent). When group and item
scores were compared between genders, statistically
significant differences were only found for vocational
reasons. Other studies conducted around the world
have found similar results. For example, Peruvian
females assigned higher scores to vocational and
professional reasons.1 The priority of vocational
reasons for females has also been found for British21
and Hispanic females in North America.22 On the
other hand, economic reasons for males have also
been previously reported.3,9 Al-Bitar et al. found that
financial motives were among the top ten motivators
for Arab male students in Jordan.20 Dental students
have also been found to be motivated by considerations of personal and financial gain.4 These findings
are similar to those in my study, in which the highest
percentage of reasons for choosing dentistry as an
occupation was related to economic motives, which
reflects an increased awareness of financial pressures
on students in the Arab population.
According to the calculation of total scores
from 1 to 5 (little, medium, moderate, strong, and
very strong), data on the persons influencing Yemeni
students choice of dentistry as a career indicated that
most were strongly influenced by father and mother.
In addition, self-motivation played an influential role
in that decision. A relative or family friend played an
influential role for a lower proportion of participants.
In general, the choice of a career is influenced mainly
by advice from parents, relatives, friends, teachers,
and counselors.22 However, variations occur from one
population to another. In most developed countries
like Finland, the United Kingdom, and the United
States, talking to relatives or friends in the dental
profession was the most influential factor. In contrast,
in developing countries, like Yemen, advice from
parents and teachers appeared to be more relevant.
These findings were comparable to those in studies
conducted in Nigeria and Tanzania.15,23
In view of the results of this study, these findings
will hopefully assist in the counseling of prospective

March 2013 Journal of Dental Education

dental students and the planning of undergraduate

programs in dental sciences, as it is important that
students enter dental school with an understanding
of and realistic expectations for a career in dentistry.
Without that, students may discover too late that the
field of dentistry does not meet their expectations,
which may result in dentists who do not practice with
optimal enthusiasm and operational efficiency.14 I
strongly recommend establishing career education
programs in dental schools to educate students on
their career choices and employment opportunities
following their graduation from secondary school,
which will ultimately produce a good number of
service-minded dentists. Further studies are also
needed using regression model analysis to find not
only the reasons for choosing dentistry but also confounding factors, e.g., socioeconomic status, family
income, parents occupations, school of derivation,
and alternative options besides studying at university.
The findings presented are probably the first
reported data on the reasons students choose dentistry
as a profession in the Republic of Yemen. However,
the current study could not overcome some methodological limitations. First, even though the study was
conducted in the university area, the response rate
was relatively low, limited by the number of subjects
who agreed to participate. This low response rate
could be attributed to the lack of knowledge about
the importance of research in general. Furthermore,
the rate could be attributed to the fact that most of
the students were women, and in Yemeni culture,
women prefer more privacy because of some societal
boundaries, such as segregated educational systems
and gender segregation within work environments.
Nevertheless, the response rates were consistent with
other reports for dental students.13,23 As in other studies and consistent with ethical guidelines, this study
did not use any method to influence participants to
respond. Thus, despite this low response, the results
contribute to knowledge of the differences/similarities among dental students. Second, because the
study subjects came from different class years, their
responses could be prejudiced by what year of class
they are in. Finally, generalization of the results to a
larger population is limited because the sample subjects were volunteer students at one university. This
source of study subjects could introduce a potential
selection bias into the investigation and make the
results more applicable to UST dental students than
to any other university students in Yemen, the Arab
world, or elsewhere.

335

Conclusions
Based on the obtained results, this study concludes that the Yemeni dental students reasons for
choosing dentistry as a profession were economic
rather than vocational. However, vocational reasons
were also found to be significant factors for choosing
dentistry as a career by both genders in this group of
dental students.

Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges the interns

(Dr. Hana Al-katheri, Dr. Marwah Dabbour, and Dr.
Zahraa Al-Awsy) at the School of Dental Sciences,
UST, for their assistance in the distribution of the
questionnaires. I would also like to thank my undergraduate students for facilitating the research.

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