BMJ  2008;336:1264 (7 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.a252

Letters

Broadening access to medicine

Lessons in medical school access from America

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

Ip and McManus worry that widening participation schemes for entry to medical school sacrifice "equality of opportunity" because applicants are not all "treated uniformly."¹ But it could be argued that those entering medical school through such schemes have not had equal opportunity to attend high achieving schools.¹

A scheme run by a university in the US might solve several of the objections to such schemes and help redress the class divisions in the UK school system. Rather than considering exam results only, the university gives weight to the student’s rank within the school. An admissions policy that requires students to be in the top X% of their year treats all students uniformly and recognises that it can be as difficult to get a B grade from a poorly performing school as an A grade from a high performing school. If such a scheme were adopted, would it affect the distribution . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Whitehouse Centre, Huddersfield HD1 5JU

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