Drastic times need drastic measures: COVID-19 and widening access to medicine

In response to COVID-19, schools, colleges and universities across the world have closed or shifted to online/remote or blended teaching, learning and assessment. These changed ways of working pose challenges to students and will likely exacerbate existing educational attainment gaps between different societal groups. Our focus is the potential impact of COVID-19 on widening access to medicine. We provide an account of the process, in the form of comparative cases, of applying for medical school for two applicants from differing backgrounds. Three challenges were identified: family circumstances and support (financial security and parental educational support); staying connected (access to educational material, technology and Wifi); getting the grades and meeting other entry criteria (predicting grades and work experience). We propose that medical schools adopt drastic measures to protect widening access including increasing the use of aptitude tests, contextualised admissions, online multiple mini interviews (MMIs), creative outreach and promotion of alternative means of gaining relevant experience.