This year is the first time that medicine’s new quota 2 admission test has been put into practice. The evaluation shows that the test actually gives those applicants who do not have the marks to be admitted via quota 1 a new chance, and that the admission process is perceived as being fair.

2016.09.22 | Mette Louise Ohana

There are more quota 2 students among the new medical students than previously. Photo: Lars Kruse, Aarhus University

For the first time, quota 2 admissions this year doubled to 20 per cent to provide more places to applicants who do not have a sufficiently high average mark, but who are passionate about becoming a medical doctor. At the same time, a new admission test was taken into use to pare the more than 1,800 quota 2 applicants down to the almost 100 students who make it through the eye of the needle.

The first evaluation shows that new admission test has succeeded in actually giving quota 2 applicants a real chance with the new method of evaluation, in which interviews are used to assess applicants on the basis of relevant competences for a medical doctor such as empathy, communication skills and robustness.

"We can see that our admission interviews manage to measure something different than average marks, because there is no correlation between the applicant's score in the interviews and their average marks. So with the way in which the test is formed, we actually provide a second chance for quota 2 applicants, which was one of the objectives of the new admission test," says Lotte O'Neill, associate professor at the Centre for Health Sciences Education (CESU), who have helped develop the test.

This year the admission requirement for quota 1 was 10.9. The average mark for students who received a place via quota 2 was 8.9, while the average for those who received a place via quota 1 was 11.5.

Twenty-five per cent no shows 

The students admitted via the new test will be closely monitored in the coming years to see how they manage, and whether this form of admission can prevent students dropping-out, as the University of Southern Denmark has found it does.

"Around 25 per cent of the applicants who were registered for the quota 2 tests did not participate in the process anyway. Even with some reservations in relation to the figures, we have good reason to assume that the group who chose to complete the tests are probably a better match for studying medicine at AU in terms of motivation," says Dean Allan Flyvbjerg.

Previous studies have shown that between one in four and one in five of the medical students at AU drop out during their studies.

Majority of male students admitted via quota 2 

The admission test also turned out to give a significantly different gender distribution than quota 1. This year, quota 2 admissions comprised 61 per cent men and 39 per cent women. The figures for quota 1 were reversed, with 33 per cent men and 67 per cent women.

"The admission test helps to correct the imbalance in the gender composition of the medical degree programme, which has for many years has been a by-product of the average mark-based admission criteria in quota 1," says Allan Flyvbjerg.

Test perceived as fair 

The evaluation has also revealed how both applicants and assessors experienced the admission interviews, which comprised eight separate interviews. Both the interviewers and the applicants themselves thought that the content of the interviews was relevant in relation to being a medical doctor, and the entire admission process was perceived as being fair.

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The quota 2 admission test at medicine

• Applicants must have an average mark of at least 6.0, they must meet the required levels for a number of subjects and must also have at least six months of work experience.
• Applicants' cognitive competences are assessed using a multiple-choice test with around 100 questions. Applicants are tested for quantitative, critical and linguistic reasoning.
• Those who score highest in the test proceed to the brief admission interviews. They face eight interviews, each of which takes eight minutes, and all of which test the applicants' competences within communication, collaboration, empathy and robustness. Applicants are assessed by representatives from among their future employers, including heads of degree programmes, senior hospital physicians, clinical associate professors and communication professionals from the Central Denmark Region.
• The result of the final test determines which applicants receive an offer of one of the 96 quota 2 places on the medical degree programme.

Further information

Dean Allan Flyvbjerg
Aarhus University, Health
Mobile: (+45) 5177 9548
Mail: dean.health@au.dk