Dutch universities implementing lottery to increase diversity in medical studies

Several Dutch universities plan to replace their medical study selection procedure with a lottery, wholly or partially. They hope that will increase equality of opportunity, result in more diversity, and reduce performance pressure on high school students, Trouw reports after surveying all eight medical schools in the country.

Prospective doctors are currently selected based on their prior knowledge and motivation. Candidates must take medical knowledge and skills tests and submit their grades, motivation letters, and CVs, among other things. This decentralized selection has received increasing criticism, as it advantages students who have more resources. Wealthy parents can afford tutoring and practice materials, and doctors’ children have easier access to relevant internships, for example.

Until last year, decentralized selection was legally required. But now that a lottery is allowed again, many universities want to make use of the option soon. “Candidates who can financially afford to organize guidance are advantaged,” a spokesperson for Radboud University told Trouw. And the selection process puts a lot of pressure on secondary school students, who now have to absolutely excel for a chance to get a place in medical school, the universities in Leiden and Utrecht added.

Radboud University in Nijmegen told Trouw it is considering switching completely to an unweighted lottery so that every candidate has an equal chance. The universities in Rotterdam and Groningen are working on a combination of selection and lottery - a select number of students with the best results are guaranteed a place and the remaining places are raffled. Other universities are still figuring out how to change their selection procedure, but are confident that changes will be made.

The Education Inspectorate “applauds” that medical schools are considering new selection methods. A year ago, the Inspectorate released a report saying that many of these types of fixed-enrollment courses have no idea which candidates are advantaged and disadvantaged by their selection methods. “It is important that courses check whether the method of selection is in line with the goal they want to achieve,” inspector Susanne Rijken told Trouw. “Is that selecting students who are expected to graduate quickly? Or promoting a diverse profession?”