Dental students in UK are not being prepared for the 21st century with the present ad hoc arrangements of computer skill training. Practically, it is far more sensible to coordinate the production of computer based teaching from combined resources and make it freely available to all schools. The electronic patient record will be in use within hospitals within the next 5 years and it is essential that students have a full understanding of the nature of information and its management to prepare them for this move. The proposed future strategies are: 1. Each school should appoint an clinically qualified individual responsible for computer based teaching and information technology skills. 2. The individual should chair the school IT committee and should be given time to do this. 3. Deans must also take steps to acquire adequate supporting staff to ensure that clinical staff do not spend an increasing amount of time solving colleagues and students computing problems. 4. That Deans agree a sum for each school to invest in the development of computer based teaching as a cooperative national venture. 5. That Deans should define the information technology and information management skills which students need to acquire during their course. 6. That dental schools give consideration to requiring those applying for dental school places to acquire the necessary PC based IT skills.