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Bill Oxford / UNSPLASH
A plan designed to increase the number of students in Maori and Pasifika medical schools faces a legal challenge.
The University of Otago says it will fight a legal challenge to its scheme designed to increase the number of Maori and Pasifika students entering its medical school.
The Mirror on Society Policy, introduced in 2012, means that national students who belong to special categories, which also include rural areas, refugees and those of low socio-economic status, get preferential entry into Otago medical school.
University leaders confirmed that the scheme faced a legal challenge, a challenge that would argue that the special category numbers should be limited by the proportion of relevant groups in society.
For 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.
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Their respective share of the population is around 25% (16% Maori and 9% Pasifika). However, in the current medical workforce, only 3.4% are Maori and 1.8% Pasifika.
University of Otago Vice Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne, Professional Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Brunton, Tuari Potiki Maori Development Director, and Pacific Development Director Dr. Tasileta Teevale issued a joint statement Tuesday in which they said the university would “vigorously oppose” legal challenge in court.
They said limiting admissions to special categories “would slow down the rate at which a representative health workforce could be achieved.”
Kavinda Herath / Things
University of Otago Vice Chancellor Harlene Hayne says a legal challenge to her special entry scheme will face a fight.
The Otago medical school was in a unique position to help address the underrepresentation of some key populations in the health workforce, including the Maori and Pasifika, they said.
While the university rejected criticism of its existing processes, the legal challenge highlighted the importance of ensuring that all admissions decisions were transparent and legally sound, they said.
Last month, a screening policy change discussion paper presented to the University of Otago Medical Admissions Committee suggested limiting the number of Maori special entrance slots to 56 students and Pasifika to 20. Since then, the university has been has gone to great lengths to say that the discussion paper was not a “Proposal for change.”
The document aroused the concern of the Medical Council and groups representing medical students. Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon responded by urging the university not to undo the progress. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Chief Health Officer Ashley Bloomfield expressed their support for the medical workforce to reflect the population.
Are you involved in the legal challenge? Email [email protected]
In the joint statement, university leaders said the medical school had graduated, on average, 38 Maori doctors each year since 2016, compared to 14 a year between 2010 and 2015.
Once students enter medical school, the requirements are the same. This year, 29 (14%) places (for the first year of Health Sciences) were for people with rural ties, 11 entered the low socioeconomic category and one in the refugee category. That left 82 general entry spots (40 percent), spots for which the competition is fierce.
General-entry candidates needed at least a 94 percent average grade in their seven jobs to get an offer to go to medical school. Special category entrants must earn a minimum of 70 percent for each job.
