Ethnic and gender variations in university applicants to United Kingdom medical and dental schools

Aim To explore ethnic and gender variations amongst applicants to undergrad uate United Kingdom medical and dental schools. Method Retrospective analyses of University and College Admissions Services (UCAS) data on all students applying to study pre-clinical medicine and de ntistry, during the academic years 1994/5, 1995/6 and 1996/7. Information f or each medical and dental applicant included age, gender, social class and ethnic group. Results Of all applicants, just over half (50.2%) were male, though a great er proportion of applicants to dentistry were male (54.1%) than for medicin e (49.3%) (OR=1.21, 95% CI=1.15, 1.28). Over one third (36.4%) of all stude nts were from minority ethnic groups, a larger proportion of which were den tal students (48.3%) than were medical students (33.8%) (OR=1.83, 95% CI=1. 73,1.94). There were also marked differences between medicine and dentistry when the ethnic groups were examined separately. The largest number of app licants from minority ethnic groups came from the Indian community, and thi s group increased in size annually by 4.1% (P<0.05) for medicine, and 29% ( P<0.05) for dentistry. Conclusions Significant inter-ethnic and gender differences are observed am ongst applicants to medicine and dentistry. Dentistry appears to be relativ ely more attractive to minority ethnic applicants.