Search

We audited the websites of all 57 undergraduate medicine course websites at UK universities for 2020 entry, looking in particular for the clarity of information regarding contextual admissions (CA). 49 programmes featured 47 distinct CA policies, using 26 different contextual markers, 8 programmes had no CA policy. Half (51%) of these courses with CA described clearly how they used CA, some allowed candidates to evaluate their own eligibility. However, the burden currently falls on individual applicants to understand the CA system at each medical school. Medical schools should present CA information clearly and accessibly so that applicants can make informed choices where to apply, having a one-stop for accessing all CA information across medical schools would also lessen the research burden on applicants. This could increase applications from a more diverse range of applicants. Other degree courses might use this study as a springboard to reflect on their CA policies.

This original study followed up ten beneficiaries of a UK charity-led programme that supported disadvantaged students in applying to elite US universities. First interviewed in 2015 during their early university days in the United States, in our 2019 follow-up all participants had graduated. Six remained in the United States and four had returned to the United Kingdom, with only one returning to their pre-university community. They reported benefitting immensely from their international opportunities and were nearly all in high-paying graduate jobs or high-profile graduate programmes. Drawing on Bourdieu's concept of the 'cleft habitus', which can result from rapid and substantial shifts in field, we found that this was rare. Rather, the majority had undergone a 'wholesale escape', replacing their originary habitus with one that was consistent with their new field. The significance of the study is that the findings allow us to propose the concept of 'helicopter mobility' to describe individualised approaches to social mobility, whereby those considered to have merit are removed from their communities without questioning or affecting wider structural inequalities.