Preamble:
The Faculty of Dentistry, founded originally as the School of Dentistry by the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario in 1875, is unique within Canada in the number, quality and diversity of its educational and research programmes, and it has earned an international reputation for excellence. The Faculty's continuing aim is to maintain and justify this outstanding reputation and to find new ways of enhancing it. This has to be accomplished in a time of changing external pressures and increased financial constraints that the University of Toronto and the Faculty of Dentistry now face. This Mission Statement serves to reiterate, or in some cases establish, the aims of the Faculty of Dentistry as it prepares for the challenges of the 21st century.

Mission:
The mission of the Faculty of Dentistry is to provide leadership and to strive for excellence in undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate and continuing dental education and in scholarly activities related to research and clinical care. The educational and scholarly activities of the Faculty of Dentistry are to be carried out in accordance with the guiding principles of the University of Toronto and its stated commitments to teaching and learning, research, and service to the community. To achieve this mission, the Faculty of Dentistry has the following aims in its teaching, learning, and scholarly activities:

• attract first-class scholars and teachers who have demonstrated ability, creativity and achievement in activities such as scientific or educational research and clinical practice;
• encourage excellent and innovative research and professional activities that elucidate the features and mechanisms of craniofacial and oral functions and disorders and related diseases and that improve diagnosis and therapy for these disorders and diseases;
• attract excellent and highly motivated undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students;
• foster in the students a commitment to lifelong learning, social concern and compassion, and ethical and responsible professional activities;
• provide for students challenging and current educational programmes emphasizing the acquisition of knowledge, technology and clinical skills, creative thinking, critical inquiry and analysis, and problem solving;
• provide educational and research facilities, patient care services, and information and administrative support services of the highest quality, and foster and recognize achievements in learning and excellence in teaching and in scholarly activities;
• foster cooperation, interdisciplinary collaboration and achievement within the Faculty and between the Faculty and the University, the various teaching hospitals of the University, research institutes, government, industry, professional and community agencies and international academic institutions that have interests in the Faculty's activities;
• provide opportunities for sharing of its educational expertise with Alumni and other persons in professional practice and other institutions.