Access to medical school is still dominated by students from more affluent parts of society, a new study led by Dundee University has shown.
The inequality appears to be greatest in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, according to the study into variation between medical schools across the UK.
Medical students have historically largely come from more affluent parts of society, leading many countries to seek to broaden access to medical careers on the grounds of social justice and the perceived benefits of greater workforce diversity.
However, the new study shows marked differences across the social gradient of applicants.
Researchers from the universities of Dundee and Central Lancashire looked at socioeconomic status using postcode data for applicants, school type and parental occupation.
Depending on which UK country they were from, between 19.7% and 34.5% of applicants lived in the most affluent tenth of postcodes, as opposed to only 1.8 to 5.7% in the least affluent tenth of areas.
“Regardless of which measure you look at, those coming from less affluent backgrounds are much less likely to apply to study medicine, and those that do apply are somewhat less likely to be offered a place at medical school,” said Professor Bruce Guthrie, of Dundee University Medical School.
“Admission to medical school determines the composition of the medical profession in the future and, based on our analysis, medicine in the UK will remain dominated by those from more affluent backgrounds.
“There is no quick fix to widening participation, partly because gaining a place remains, rightly, largely determined by academic ability.”
The majority of applicants in all postcodes had parents in higher end occupations.
A quarter of people in the UK are in the two lowest occupational groups, but only one in twenty medical applicants had parents in these occupations.
There was also a higher rate of applications from students at independent schools as opposed to state schools.
The researchers analysed application data for 22 medical schools and around 30,000 applicants across the UK for the three years from 2009-10 to 2011-12.
The study was supported by the UK Clinical Aptitude Test consortium which provided data and the results are published in the journal BMC Medical Education.