Equity in interviews: do personal characteristics impact on admission interview scores?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Social Sciences in Medicine
• Admissions Processes

Background:

• Concerns exist regarding social bias in medical school selection systems.
• The interview stage is a potential point for social bias due to face-to-face interaction.
• Previous research indicates certain social groups may be disadvantaged by admissions processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To audit the medical school interview process for social bias.
• To investigate if interviewer/interviewee characteristics influence interview scores.
• To determine if social matching impacts interview outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Detailed audit of a UK medical school's interview process for one entry year.
• Analysis of personal characteristics of 734 applicants and 320 interviewers.
• Statistical assessment of factors including gender, ethnicity, socio-economic group, and school type on interview scores.

Main Results:

• Interview process reliability estimated at 0.82-0.87 using generalisability theory.
• No significant influence of interviewee or interviewer gender, ethnicity, socio-economic group, or school type on scores.
• No significant differences in scores awarded by staff versus student interviewers or across medical specialties.

Conclusions:

• The interview stage does not appear to be where social disadvantage occurs in this selection system.
• Results support the continued inclusion of senior medical students in interviews.
• The study suggests that reliance on interviews, while potentially misplaced for predicting success, does not introduce additional social bias.