Ending affirmative action leads to less diversity at US medical schools, study shows

When some US states banned affirmative action it led to less diversity in admissions to their medical schools and lower enrolment of four under-represented racial and ethnic groups, a study has found.1

Affirmative action—considering race and ethnicity as one of many factors in admitting students—originated in the civil rights movement of the 1960s as a way to increase equity and diversity. Since then several states have banned affirmative action, in a move to return to “colour blindness.” The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a lawsuit against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, which claims that their affirmative action policies in …