Medical School Admissions

Building on the University of Worcester’s exceptional and proven record on widening access to higher education, the Three Counties Medical School (TCMS) will aim to direct recruitment primarily at those groups that are under-represented in medical courses and in the profession. This includes, in particular, students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, who still account for only around 10 per cent of all admissions nationally. 

“Regardless of your background, we have got routes into medicine that aim to remove some of the barriers that are preventing the medical workforce from reflecting the diversity of the population.”

Professor Kay Mohanna
GP and Professor of Values Based Healthcare Education at the University of Worcester

A further priority will be to encourage and support applications from local students, as part of the medical school’s mission to address difficulties in recruiting and retaining doctors in the region. A number of specific initiatives will bring these two aims together, to produce a step change in applications from local students with widening participation backgrounds.

Although the TCMS is offering a graduate entry course, existing outreach networks in schools and colleges will be used to highlight opportunities for students to progress into the medical programme via a range of feeder routes, with a guaranteed interview for those achieving academic entry requirements.

In addition there will be a range of tailored activities including targeted mentoring with qualified graduate entry doctors (initially from partner organisations); the use of digital media to help explain the routes to medicine; academic study workshops embedded in programmes; career events focused on medicine; and taster placements and workshops in NHS Trusts.

An important third strand in the TCMS admissions strategy is to offer places to graduates from a wide range of disciplines, including for example behavioural and social sciences, humanities and psychology, who may be more likely to progress into general practice or psychiatry. The TCMS is one of only a few medical schools adopting this strategy, which it has based on evidence from Swansea University Medical School showing that students from a non-science background perform equally as well as their bioscience peers after the first year of a medical programme. 

“The good thing about the Three Counties is that it will look for slightly different characteristics than a typical medical school. We are looking for really well-rounded people, not just people who are purely academic. You could have a background in all sorts of different subjects, it doesn’t have to be science based. As long as you are prepared to put the work in and are passionate about it, give it a go and apply!”

Ms Fiona Court
Award-winning consultant breast surgeon at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust,
and a member of the TCMS Curriculum Development Group