Student selection and recruitment processes in the UK: Who are we missing?

Mcginley, Sarah, Hamilton, Sukh and Bradley, Alexander (2022) Student selection and recruitment processes in the UK: Who are we missing? In Book of Abstracts: 26th ENOTHE Annual Meeting 2022. European Network of Occupational Therapy in Higher Education. p. 26 .

Abstract

Widening access to Higher Education became a priority in the UK in the 1990’s, coinciding with occupational therapy (OT) education’s transition from Diploma of the College of Occupational Therapists (DipCOT) to BSc (Hons) degree qualification (Royal College of Occupational Therapists, 2019; Ryan, 2001). Despite this, OT has made little progress in diversifying studentship and workforce populations across ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic background, and (dis)ability over several decades (Colaianni et al., 2022), with the profession continuing to struggle to dispel the image that it is for “white middle-class females” (Yates, 1996, p. 353). While Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have a responsibility to ensure admissions processes are fair, accessible and equitable (Universities UK, 2020), there has been no published data bringing together identification and assessment of admissions criteria across all UK HEIs delivering pre-registration programmes of OT education. A cross-sectional quantitative content analysis identifying programme type, academic, professional and alternative entry criteria was conducted. The review uncovered widespread variability and absence of data, placing the burden of understanding of entry requirements on candidates. This session will seek to explore how current processes may be excluding potential students at the point of entry, thus contributing to the historical and continued lack of professional diversity.

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Contributors

Author: Sarah Mcginley

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