Dr Philip Chan, Lead for Admissions at KMMS, recently attended the House of Lords for the launch of the Medical Schools Council Selection Alliance report ‘Fostering Potential,’ which marks 10 years of the Selection for Excellence project. The report highlights KMMS's innovative selection process.
Dr Chan stated “KMMS is a new medical school with a clear mission to innovate in widening participation in medicine. Our approach contextualises each applicant rather than labelling them.” Dr Chan emphasised that the quality of schooling significantly predicts performance in medical school and higher education. He explained their method of contextualising applicants based on their school’s average attainment, utilising data such as the percentage of students achieving AAB in qualifying subjects for post-A Levels and the Attainment 8 metric.
Over the last four years, KMMS has interviewed 37% and admitted 38% widening participation applicants, and exceeding sector averages. Dr Chan noted that their admissions system is fairer because it does not collect or utilise traditional widening participation characteristics from any applicants. “This method is preferable to the conventional approach that identifies disadvantaged applicants and then gives them preferential treatment to address their disadvantages. We believe that our system is less prone to manipulation and advantage seeking behaviour.”
The report recommends that medical schools consider adopting contextual admissions with a graded approach to better account for varying levels of disadvantage; you can read the full report here.
To find out more, you can contact Dr Chan directly at philip.chan@kmms.ac.uk.