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The entrance to the medical school is more difficult if you compete for the general entrance places. (File image)
The man behind a court challenge to the University of Otago medical school admissions plan is receiving support from other parents whose children did not participate.
The medical school’s Mirror on Society policy, introduced in 2012, means that national students who fit into special categories get preferential entry into Otago medical school.
The North Island father, whose name was suppressed by the High Court this week, has alleged that the admission plan runs contrary to the Education Act.
University leaders say they will “vigorously oppose” the legal challenge and that limiting admissions to special categories “would slow the rate at which a representative health workforce could be achieved.”
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* Caution requested on “ unexpected ” proposal to limit special path for Maori, Pasifika at Otago School of Medicine
* Special entry categories under review at Otago College of Medicine
University of Otago Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences Professor Paul Brunton previously said the university had an obligation to train healthcare professionals equipped to meet the needs of New Zealand’s diverse communities.
“Maori comprise only 3.4 percent and the Pacific population 1.8 percent of the medical workforce, while the proportion of the total population that identifies as Maori and Pacific is, respectively, approximately 15 percent and 8 percent, “he said.
SWIMMING POOL
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Chief Health Officer Dr. Ashley Bloomfield offer support for the Otago School of Medicine’s admissions policy. (First published September 4, 2020)
For the 2020 admission, 120 of the 202 spots available to first-year Health Sciences students were for those who entered special categories. Of these, 79 (39%) were Maori and Pasifika. There is currently no limit to the proportion of places available for students in special categories.
The parent of a student who missed a spot in this year’s admissions despite exceptional grades says he supported legal action testing the criteria.
The man, who asked not to be named, said his son completed the health sciences course at the University of Otago last year straight from high school. The student earned A + grades on required assignments and a UCAT (an intelligence / proficiency test) score above the 90th percentile. Your child was denied entry.
Maori and Pasifika applicants were accepted for 2020 with B averages and without consideration of UCAT scores.
“I don’t know who has challenged the university, but I would gladly make a donation for their legal fees if they did,” the man said.
“There has been a lot of noise about how unfair Mirror on Society’s suggestion to limit numbers is and how it reflects so-called ‘white privilege.
“What I don’t see, for the sake of fairness and balance in the media, are the views of the stakeholder members of the general admission group,” he said.
He had attended the health sciences open house in mid-2018 for year 13 students and not a word was said about the pressures general-entry students would face when competing for a limited and potentially declining number of places in medicine.
“What is sadder is that the same pressure continues for students to decline a place that they still want to enter as graduates. They have to work very hard to maintain high qualifications to be considered candidates when they graduate. Once again, they will face special entry students as well as ongoing tuition fees. “
The Auckland father of another student who was turned down in Otago, after completing the first year of the Health Sciences course and then again after earning a Bachelor of Science with distinction, said the criteria needed to be challenged.
John Bisset / Stuff
Physician training has become a hot topic in New Zealand.
Last year she sought funding from the Office of Human Rights Procedures to challenge the medical school’s decision regarding her son in Human Rights Court. She wanted to argue that her son’s grades were higher than those of the Maori and Pacific Islander students who had managed to get in and therefore her son was discriminated against because of her race.
Furthermore, he claimed that his son was misled by the University of Otago with the implication that he would be accepted into medical school if he completed a degree in health sciences. This had cost him more time and money, as well as psychological impacts.
The university denied that it had acted incorrectly.
The office refused to fund the proceeding primarily because it had little chance of success given the legal nature of the university’s affirmative action policies.
In his ruling, director of human rights procedures Michael Timmins said the court is likely to find that a policy promoting Maori and Pacific students with relaxed admission criteria was designed to directly address the effect of indirect discrimination. .
