Widening Participation Students’ Performance in Medicine at the University of Glasgow

Sartania, N. (2015) Widening Participation Students’ Performance in Medicine at the University of Glasgow. Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) Annual Conference 2015, Glasgow, UK, 5-10 Sept 2015.

Abstract

Background: Medicine is a competitive degree programme and selection processes are complex, requiring evidence of academic excellence, strong personal statements, and high scores in UKCAT and interview. While it is desirable that demographics of the medical workforce match that of the general population it serves, the admissions process is thought to be one barrier to accessing the professions (Sutton Trust, 2010), contributing to greater representation of higher socio-economic groups among applicants and medical students. ‘Reach Scotland’ is an important part of our strategy to widen participation in undergraduate medicine in Glasgow, and aims to raise awareness of and encourage and support able S4-S6 pupils to gain a place on the course. Since 2012 this programme has helped 93 pupils from low progression schools and disadvantaged postcode areas in the West of Scotland. Their contextual data was used to allow some flexibility in admissions criteria. Summary of Work: To evaluate how ‘Reach’ students have progressed on the course, we have tracked their performance to date. We examined associations between student demographics, preadmissions measures and performance indicators in years 1&2 as in Sartania et al., 2013. Summary of Results: Preliminary results indicate that additional support is needed to help widening participation (WP) students through the course, raising the issue of adequate resources for schools striving to meet the Government’s WP agenda. Discussion and Conclusions: We will present results from the regression analysis used to compare the ‘Reach’ students’ outcomes versus the rest. Take-home messages: The Reach programme allows effective engagement with a diverse population of prospective students; however extra support needed to help them succeed on the course.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Sartania, Professor Nana
• Authors: Sartania, N.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Medicine, Dentistry & Nursing