Have a personal or library account? Click to login
Equity Beyond Entry: A Capability Approach to Understanding Widening Participation in Medical Education Cover

Equity Beyond Entry: A Capability Approach to Understanding Widening Participation in Medical Education

Open Access
|Nov 2025

References

  1. 1Connell-Smith A, Hubble S. Widening participation strategy in higher education in England. London, UK: House of Commons Library; 2018.
  2. 2Simpson AV, Hope D. When I say … widening participation. Med Educ. 2024;58(7):7801. DOI: 10.1111/medu.15372
  3. 3British Medical Association. The demography of medical schools: a discussion paper. London, UK: British Medical Association; 2004.
  4. 4Gomez LE, Bernet P. Diversity improves performance and outcomes. J Natl Med Assoc. 2019;111(4):38392. DOI: 10.1016/j.jnma.2019.01.006
  5. 5Dowell J, Norbury M, Steven K, Guthrie B. Widening access to medicine may improve general practitioner recruitment in deprived and rural communities: survey of GP origins and current place of work. BMC Med Educ. 2015;15:165. DOI: 10.1186/s12909-015-0445-8
  6. 6Puddey IB, Playford DE, Mercer A. Impact of medical student origins on the likelihood of ultimately practising in areas of low vs high socio-economic status. BMC Med Educ. 2017;17(1):1. DOI: 10.1186/s12909-016-0842-7
  7. 7Kumwenda B, Cleland J, Prescott G, Walker K, Johnston P. Relationship between sociodemographic factors and specialty destination of UK trainee doctors: a national cohort study. BMJ Open. 2019;9(3):e026961. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-026961
  8. 8Salmi J. Higher education equity policies across the globe. Int High Educ. 2019;98:45.
  9. 9Woolf K, Medisauskaite, A, Boustane S, Latham K. Unequal Treatment? Access to medicine for socio-economically disadvantaged students. London, UK: The Sutton Trust; 2025.
  10. 10Fielding S, Tiffin P, Greatrix R, Lee A, Patterson F, Nicholson S, et al. Do changing medical admissions practices in the UK impact on who is admitted? An interrupted time series analysis. BMJ Open. 2018;8:e023274. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023274
  11. 11Greenhalgh T, Seyan K, Boynton P. “Not a university type”: focus group study of social class, ethnic, and sex differences in school pupils’ perceptions about medical school. BMJ. 2004;328(7455):1541. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.328.7455.1541
  12. 12Mathers J, Parry J. Why are there so few working-class applicants to medical schools? Learning from the success stories. Med Educ. 2009;43(3):21928. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2008.03274.x
  13. 13McHarg J, Mattick K, Knight LV. Why people apply to medical school: implications for widening participation activities. Med Educ. 2007;41(8):81521. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2007.02798.x
  14. 14Alexander K, Nicholson S, Cleland J. “It’s going to be hard you know…” Teachers’ perceived role in widening access to medicine. Adv Health Sci Educ. 2021;26(1):27796. DOI: 10.1007/s10459-020-09984-9
  15. 15Martin AJ, Beska BJ, Wood G, Wyatt N, Codd A, Vance G, et al. Widening interest, widening participation: factors influencing school students’ aspirations to study medicine. BMC Med Educ. 2018;18:113. DOI: 10.1186/s12909-018-1221-3
  16. 16Biggs L, Grafton-Clarke C, Garner J. Perception of medicine in under-represented students. Educ Prim Care. 2019;30(1):4951. DOI: 10.1080/14739879.2018.1540946
  17. 17Robb N, Dunkley L, Boynton P, Greenhalgh T. Looking for a better future: Identity construction in socio-economically deprived 16-year-olds considering a career in medicine. Soc Sci Med. 2007;65(4):73854. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.03.011
  18. 18Southgate E, Kelly BJ, Symonds IM. Disadvantage and the ‘capacity to aspire’ to medical school. Med Educ. 2015;49(1):7383. DOI: 10.1111/medu.12540
  19. 19Sartania N. Admission to medical school is not the endpoint of widening participation. Open Scholar of Teach Learn. 2023;2(3):17. DOI: 10.56230/osotl.61
  20. 20Krstić C, Krstić L, Tulloch A, Agius S, Warren A, Doody GA. The experience of widening participation students in undergraduate medical education in the UK: A qualitative systematic review. Med Teach. 2021;43(9):104453. DOI: 10.1080/0142159X.2021.1908976
  21. 21Beagan BL. Everyday classism in medical school: experiencing marginality and resistance. Med Educ. 2005;39(8):77784. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2929.2005.02225.x
  22. 22Bassett AM, Brosnan C, Southgate E, Lempp H. The experiences of medical students from First-in-Family (FiF) university backgrounds: a Bourdieusian perspective from one English medical school. Res Post-Compuls Educ. 2019;24(4):33155. DOI: 10.1080/13596748.2018.1526909
  23. 23Brosnan C, Southgate E, Outram S, Lempp H, Wright S, Saxby T, et al. Experiences of medical students who are first in family to attend university. Med Educ. 2016;50(8):84251. DOI: 10.1111/medu.12995
  24. 24Morrison N, Machado M, Blackburn C. Student perspectives on barriers to performance for black and minority ethnic graduate-entry medical students: a qualitative study in a West Midlands medical school. BMJ Open. 2019;9(11):e032493. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-032493
  25. 25Nicholson S. Exploring the academic experience of medical students from a non-traditional socio-economic background: A study of their models of learning and professionalisation within an undergraduate medical curriculum 2013. [PhD Thesis]. Dundee, UK: University of Dundee; 2013.
  26. 26Bassett AM, Brosnan C, Southgate E, Lempp H. Transitional journeys into, and through medical education for First-in-Family (FiF) students: a qualitative interview study. BMC Med Educ. 2018;18(1):102. DOI: 10.1186/s12909-018-1217-z
  27. 27Wright SR, Boyd VA, Okafor I, Sharma M, Giroux R, Richardson L, et al. ‘First in family’ experiences in a Canadian medical school: A critically reflexive study. Med Educ. 2023;57(10):98090. DOI: 10.1111/medu.15116
  28. 28Conway-Hicks S, de Groot JM. Living in two worlds: Becoming and being a doctor among those who identify with “not from an advantaged background”. Curr Probl Pediatr Adolesc Health Care. 2019;49(4):92101. DOI: 10.1016/j.cppeds.2019.03.006
  29. 29Kwong JC, Dhalla IA, Streiner DL, Baddour RE, Waddell AE, Johnson IL. A comparison of Canadian medical students from rural and non-rural backgrounds. Can J Rural Med. 2005;10(1):3642.
  30. 30Ravulapalli KC, Arroyave Caicedo NM, Zahra D, Mirza M. Quantitative Analysis of Challenges Encountered by UK Widening Participation Medical Students in Comparison With Their Non-Widening Participation Peers. J Med Educ Curric Dev. 2024;11:23821205241249012. DOI: 10.1177/23821205241249012
  31. 31Hamilton L. Amartya Sen. Cambridge (UK): Polity Press; 2019.
  32. 32Hart CS. The capability approach and education. Camb J Educ. 2012;42(3):27582. DOI: 10.1080/0305764X.2012.706393
  33. 33Sandars J, Hart CS. The capability approach for medical education: AMEE Guide No. 97. Med Teach. 2015;37(6):51020. DOI: 10.3109/0142159X.2015.1013927
  34. 34Cleland J, Buxton J, Hughes E, Patterson F. Translating government policy into practice: how new UK medical schools enact widening participation. Med Educ. 2024;58(10):124756. DOI: 10.1111/medu.15403
  35. 35Bunniss S, Kelly DR. Research paradigms in medical education research. Med Educ. 2010;44(4):35866. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03611.x
  36. 36Braun V, Clarke V. Thematic analysis: A Practical Guide. Washington, DC, US: SAGE; 2022. DOI: 10.53841/bpsqmip.2022.1.33.46
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/c3cnje54 | Journal eISSN: 2212-277X
Language: English
Submitted on: Aug 24, 2025
Accepted on: Nov 3, 2025
Published on: Nov 24, 2025
Published by: Ubiquity Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

© 2025 Ashley Simpson, David Hope, Jeni Harden, Lorna Marson, Victoria Tallentire, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.