AlphaMED Resources · https://alphamedicine.uk/Resources/glossary/widening-participation
Widening participation
Widening participation is the work universities do to help students from underrepresented backgrounds get into higher education, and into medicine.
Summary
- The Office for Students, which regulates English universities, asks them to improve equality of opportunity for disadvantaged groups to access, succeed in and progress from higher education.
- A university that wants to charge above the basic fee cap must have an access and participation plan approved by the regulator, setting out the risks to equality of opportunity over four years.
- One tool is the contextual offer, which lowers the grades asked of applicants whose background suggests their results understate their potential.
- Medical schools run summer schools for Year 12 students from areas where few people apply to medicine. The Medical Schools Council reported on these in 2020.
- Some medical schools offer a gateway year, which Leeds says is specifically designed for students from widening participation backgrounds. The Gateway year page covers it.
Sources
- Office for Studentsofficeforstudents.org.uk/…/our-approach-to-equality-of-opportunity
- Office for Studentsofficeforstudents.org.uk/…/access-and-participation-plans
- Medical Schools Councilmedschools.ac.uk/…/msc-summer-schools-provide-boost-to-medical-school-widening-
- courses.leeds.ac.ukcourses.leeds.ac.uk/…/gateway_year_to_medicine_mbchb
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