Difficulties with anonymous shortlisting of medical school applications and its effects on candidates with non-European names: prospective cohort study

Objective To assess the feasibility of anonymous shortlisting of applicatio ns for medical school and its effect on those with non-European names. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Leeds school of medicine, United Kingdom. Subjects 2047 application s for 1998 entry from the United Kingdom and the European Union. Intervention Deletion of all references to name and nationality from the ap plication form. Main outcome measures Scoring by two admissions tutors at shortlisting. Results Deleting names was cumbersome as some were repeated up to 15 times. Anonymising application forms was ineffective as one admissions tutor was able to identify nearly 50% of candidates classed as being from an ethnic m inority group. Although scores were lower for applicants with non-European names, anonymity did not improve scores. Applicants with non-European names who were identified as such by tutors were significantly less likely to dr op marks in one particular non-academic area (the career insight component) than their European counterparts. Conclusions There was no evidence of benefit to candidates with non-Europea n names of attempting to blind assessment. Anonymising application forms ca nnot be recommended.