Milburn Calls for Greater Equality for Medical and Dental Students
Alan Milburn, the social mobility tsar, has called for greater equality for medical and dental students, following the compilation of a report, which claims that students from poorer backgrounds are put off pursuing careers in medicine and dentistry because of course fees.
The government’s social mobility tsar has accused the medical profession of failing to make efforts to increase diversity in the intake of students and claims that the system favours students from wealthier backgrounds.
In the report, Milburn has called for teaching hospitals to improve access to work experience for poorer students and consider taking on more students from less wealthy backgrounds, even if they have lower grades.
In an interview with the Guardian, Milburn also said that government needs to do much more to open up further education and shake off the notion that it is beyond the reach of poorer students as a result of fee increases.
Milburn has also urged political parties to admit that there is no chance of them reaching Tony Blair’s target of eradicating child poverty by 2020.
Speaking ahead of the release of the report, Milburn said that it was shame that the medical and dental professions seem to have made no great attempt to diversify the graduate pool in terms of socioeconomic background, especially as such huge leaps have been made in terms of race and gender.
Milburn said that it was necessary to create a level playing field in order to mobilise society and said that it would not constitute “positive discrimination”, but would instead increase the talent pool.
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