New FP selection process

25 August 2011

ALL final year medical students are being asked to join in a pilot for a new selection process for the foundation programme.

The way in which students are selected for the programme is being revised after it was oversubscribed last year. The UK Foundation Programme Office announced there had been 184 more applicants than places available, but most have since been found a job.

The Medical Schools Council is now trying to design an evaluation system that will test more accurately and transparently students’ aptitude. Smaller pilots have been held in the past year but now the full scale Parallel Recruitment Exercise (PRE) is being launched.

The PRE will comprise a situational judgment test and the educational performance measure. These will run alongside the FP application service between November 2011 and January 2012, to test how well the new selection process works before going live for the 2013 FP recruitment round.

Paul O’Neill, chair of the Improving Selection to the Foundation Programme project said: “I would encourage all final year medical students to take part in the PRE to help ensure that the new methods and processes are robust.”

Medical schools will tell students in September when the pilots will take place.

Karin Purshouse, chair of the BMA Medical Students Committee has urged students to take part, saying: “It’s vital that students get involved locally to ensure the system will work in practice.”

For more information go to www.isfp.org.uk