Privileged to become a doctor

A disproportionate number of medical students in the UK come from the most affluent homes and neighbourhoods, a survey of nearly 33,000 applicants to 22 medical schools has found. 80% of medical students came from households containing professionals or those in higher managerial roles, and more than a quarter from private schools. 50% of secondary schools had never had a pupil apply to medical school. At one medical school just 1.5% of students admitted had parents in the two lowest ranked occupational groups.

Among English students, 38% came from the most affluent 20% of postcodes, compared with 54% of those in Scotland, 55% from Wales and 51% in Northern Ireland. In England, 8.7% of medical students were from the poorest 20% by postcode, against 4.3% in Scotland, 6.5% in Wales and 3.2% in Northern Ireland.

The researchers also found that while 12% of applicants across the UK came from the poorest 20% of neighbourhoods, only 7.6% of places at medical school went to people from those areas. By contrast, 42% of places were awarded to students from the richest 20%, even though only 36% of applicants came from those areas.

In Scotland, where private schooling is far more prevalent for the ‘middle classes’ in several areas, particularly Edinburgh, 35% of medical students came from fee-paying schools against a UK average of 27%.

And in Scotland, 86% had parents in the highest ranked professional group – the highest proportion of the four UK nations, against a UK average of 80%. In England, 29% were privately educated and a further 22% came from selective grammar schools.

Mita Dhullipala, a fourth year student at Glasgow medical school and an active member of the BMA’s students committee, has done outreach work at schools in Springburn, a district of Glasgow with some of the UK’s worst rates of deprivation and early mortality. After attending both state and private schools, Dhullipala said she had found the pastoral care and support for pupils at fee-paying schools was far greater than in state schools. Private schools’ resources meant they were more often able to treat pupils as the “complete package”.

“I have come to realise it’s really not about university. There’s little point in universities setting up more schemes if the uptake isn’t there,” she said. “There’s a need for educational reform, more funding put into the education system and there needs to be better pastoral care in state schools.”