Editorial opposes social justice and equal opportunity

doi:10.1136/bmj.a254

BMJ 2008;336:1264 (7 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.a254

Letters

Broadening access to medicine

Editorial opposes social justice and equal opportunity

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Ip and McManus seem to conflate "political correctness" withthe principles of social justice and equal opportunity thatunderpin widening access initiatives.¹ Shouldn’t we havesocial justice and equal educational opportunity within themedical profession? Or do the authors think that these goalshave already been "meritocratically" achieved and are redundant?As Wright states, their observation on the association betweensocial class and intellect, with its causal overtones, requireschallenge and more nuanced consideration.²

The authors selectively quote evidence from a report on theinfluence of schooling on higher education achievement.³ Thereport found that students from independent schools (which around30% of medical applicants in the UK have attended) achieve lessthan students from the state sector with equivalent A levelgrades. Ip and McManus also misrepresent the effect of schoolperformance, which was reported as varied. The report also saysthat subjects allied to medicine and engineering have . . . [Full text of this article]

Jonathan Mathers, research fellow¹, Kenton Lewis, head of widening participation and student recruitment²

¹ Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, ² St George’s, University of London, London SW17 0RE

matherjm@adf.bham.ac.uk