Should all medical students be graduates first? NO

doi:10.1136/bmj.39283.646771.BE

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Charles George, chair

Board of Science and Education, BMA, London WC1H 9JP

charles_george{at}btinternet.com

Most people enter medical college straight from school. Ed Peile argues that changing to a single system of graduate entry medical schools would provide the diverse multiskilled workforce needed for the future, but Charles George thinks that there is insufficient evidence to make this a criterion of entry

Traditionally, admission to a UK medical school has been directly after leaving school or one year later. In a survey carried out for the Council of Heads of Medical Schools (CHMS) in 1998,1 only 15.6% were mature (21 and over), and the proportion of these 2955 students who were graduates was not given. Since the late 1990s, the numbers of students entering existing medical schools have expanded and four more schools have been created in England. The demography of people applying for a place has changed, and in the period 2003-2005 22.4% of entrants were mature.2

I argue that we do not need to modify the current system by restricting entry to graduates. My main argument is that it would be discriminatory to school leavers and to mature non-graduates to limit medical …