Features

This web page has been set up to share information about a proposed project entitled Widening access and participation: experiences from medical education - implications for the broader Higher Education sector from the University of Leeds which reached stage two of the Economic and Social Research Council Teaching and Learning Research Programme Phase 3. [Unfortunately the project was not shortlisted for funding at stage 2 but this web page remains for information. ]

Further information about all projects shortlisted in stage two (closing date 17th October, 2002) can be found at the ESRC TLRP3 website. This particular project has changed slightly since its stage one version, entitled Widening access and participation: implications for medical schools.

Your support for this project would be greatly appreciated, in order to ensure that research is being actively carried out in this area, and a copy of a recently circulated letter requesting support (including sample replies) is available. This document includes list of co-applicants, which is also copied below. Please note that as at 7th October 2002 the subject centre is awaiting more details of the project, including permission to post the most recent version of the full stage two bid. It is not possible to post the stage one bid as ESRC project proposals are completed in an .exe file from which it cannot be extracted.

Abstract

Widening Access and Participation: Experiences from Medical Education – Implications for the broader Higher Education sector

Abstract

Many medical schools in the UK have introduced programmes designed to widen access and participation (WAP). These require considerable investment by medical schools, in terms of financial and human resources. There is limited knowledge about the effectiveness of these programmes in recruiting students from non-traditional backgrounds or how successful medical schools are at retaining such students. This study addresses the major knowledge gap in identifying the most effective strategies to make medical education more inclusive. Additionally the socio-cultural impact of WAP on staff, students and medical education institutions themselves has not been analysed or reported. The development of a research instrument to examine cultural factors in medical education will enable the effects of these strategies to be evaluated. In the first phase of this project, key enablers, informed practice and successful interventions in the area of widening access and participation will be identified through a combination of documentary review, individual and group interviews and questionnaire surveys involving relevant stakeholders. These will include staff and students in selected medical schools and staff and pupils in associated secondary schools and access course institutions. In the second phase, based on the analysis of this comprehensive data set, hypotheses for effective practice will be generated and tested in three case study medical schools, chosen because they have different pedagogical strategies (problem-based, systems-based, case-based). The effect of the different pedagogical approaches impact on WAP students and how WAP programmes and the students associated with them affect the social and cultural aspects of the medical schools will also be evaluated. Information about the perception of medicine as a career in a sample of secondary schools and Further Education (FE) institutions, which are not associated with WAP programmes, will be gathered. This will allow comparison with schools and FE institutions which are associated with medical school WAP programmes. In the final phase, the effects of the intervention WAP strategies will be evaluated, in terms of recruitment and retention in the case study medical schools while the socio-cultural effects will be measured using the ‘medical education culture’ instrument. The effects of these interventions on the perception of accessibility in the associated secondary schools and other access course institutions will also be evaluated. Finally, a review of WAP themes in other Higher Education (HE) areas will be undertaken in order to evaluate the wider application of the findings from our study of undergraduate medical education.

Aim and objectives

Aim

The overall aim of the project is to theorise the process of widening access and participation in medicine in a way that may inform initiatives in other professions, through detailed study of the academic achievement and professional socialisation of students from non-traditional backgrounds into medicine.

Objectives

1. Describe the policies and strategies for widening access and participation (WAP) which are currently used in the 28 medical schools in the United Kingdom, and evaluate their effectiveness.
2. Evaluate the impact of WAP strategies on the perception and experiences of accessibility in associated institutions (secondary schools, further education colleges and access course institutions).
3. Using this information, characterise elements of practice that appear to be most effective and theorise why such practices are effective; from this, formulate preliminary hypotheses about transforming practice.
4. Working with practitioners in 3 medical schools (the Case Study Medical Schools - CSMSs), each with a different pedagogical approach, attempt to transform existing WAP strategies to better address the identified goals of the strategies.
5. Evaluate the impact of introducing new WAP practices in the 3 CSMSs and their associated institutions.
6. Develop a research instrument to evaluate the cultural impact of introducing new WAP strategies on students, staff and institutional organisation in medical schools.
7. Theorise the possible application of effective, transformative practice in medical schools to other areas of HE.

Applicants

Lead site/PI

Prof TE Toberts, Professor of Medical Education, Medical Education Unit, University of Leeds Medical School

Partners

Dr KAM Boursicot, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Skills, Clinical, Communication Skills Learning Unit, Barts and the London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine, University of London

Prof DJ Cottrell, Director of Learning and Teaching, School of Medicine, University of Leeds

Prof J Grant, Director, Centre for Education in Medicine, Open University

Prof RK Jordan, Deputy Dean for Undergraduate Teaching, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Newcastle

Prof JT Leach, Professor of Science Education, Centre for Studies in Science and Mathematics Education, University of Leeds

Dr L Moreley, Reader in Higher Education Studies and Director, Institute of Education, London

Dr DF Wood, Deputy Dean for Education, Barts and the London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine, University of London