http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/services/Feed ${session.getAttribute("locale")} 5 http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:7209 At Nottingham University more than 95% of entrants to the traditional 5-year medical course are school leavers. Since 2003 we have admitted graduate entrants (GEM) to a shortened (4-year) course to 'widen access to students from more disadvantaged backgrounds'. We have recently shown that the GEM course widens academic and socio-demographic diversity of the medical student population. This study explored whether GEM students also bring psychological diversity and whether this could be beneficial. We studied: a) 217 and 96 applicants to the Nottingham 5- and 4-year courses respectively, applying in the 2002-3 UCAS cycle, and, b) 246 school leavers starting the 5-year course and 39 graduate entrants to the 4-year course in October 2003. The psychological profiles of the two groups of applicants and two groups of entrants were compared using their performance in the Goldberg 'Big 5' Personality test, the Personal Qualities Assessment (PQA; measuring interpersonal traits and interpersonal values), and the Lovibond and Lovibond measure of depression, anxiety and stress. For the comparison of the Entrants we excluded the 33 school leavers and seven graduates who took the tests as Applicants. Statistical analyses were undertaken using SPSS software (version 16.0). Graduate applicants compared to school leaver applicants were significantly more conscientious, more confident, more self controlled, more communitarian in moral orientation and less anxious. Only one of these differences was preserved in the entrants with graduates being less anxious. However, the graduate entrants were significantly less empathetic and conscientious than the school leavers. This study has shown that school leaver and graduate entrants to medical school differ in some psychological characteristics. However, if confirmed in other studies and if they were manifest in the extreme, not all the traits brought by graduates would be desirable for someone aiming for a medical career. 2012-01-30T05:27:30.862Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:4903 Objective: This study aimed to examine whether a graduate entry course widens access to medicine. Methods: We carried out a retrospective study at the University of Nottingham Medical School of sociodemographic and academic data collected by the Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS). Study participants comprised all applicants to the 5-year (mainly school-leavers) and 4-year (graduates only) medical courses for admission in October 2003. Results: In 2002–03, there were 2392 applicants for the 5-year course and 1235 applicants for the 4-year course. Significantly, applicants for the 4-year course comprised more males, were more socio-economically deprived and had lower UCAS tariff point scores compared with applicants for the 5-year course. These differences were preserved in those students who eventually started on either of the 2 courses in October 2003 (254 and 94 students for the 5- and 4-year courses, respectively). Comparing entrants with non-entrants (mainly rejected students), those joining the 5-year course were younger, were less socioeconomically deprived, were more likely to be White and had higher UCAS tariff point scores than non-entrants, but there were no significant gender differences. Those joining the 4-year course were more likely to be White and had higher UCAS tariff point scores than non-entrants. By contrast with entrants to the 5-year course, entrants to the 4-year course were significantly older than non-entrants. Conclusions: Graduate entrants to medicine widen academic and socio-demographic diversity in the medical school student population. 2010-04-27T04:57:00.446Z ]]>