Follow the policy: An actor network theory study of widening participation to medicine in two countries

The slow pace of change in respect of increasing the diversity of medical students suggests powerful actors are reproducing practices to support the status quo. Opening up medicine to embrace diversity thus requires the deconstruction of entrenched processes and practices. The first step in doing so is to understand how the actor-network of widening participation and access to medicine (WP/WA) is constructed. Thus, here we examine how the connections among actors in WP/WA in two different networks are assembled.

A comparative case study using documents (n = 7) and interviews with staff and students (n = 45) from two medical schools, one United Kingdom and one Australian, was used. We used Callon's moments of translation (problematisation, interessement/operationalisation, enrolment, mobilisation) to map the network of actors as they are assembled in relation to one another. Our main actant was institutional WP to medicine policy (actor-as-policy).

Our actor-as-policy introduced five other actors: the medical school, medical profession, high schools, applicants and medical school staff. In terms of problematisation, academic excellence holds firm as the obligatory passage point and focal challenge for all actors in both countries. The networks are operationalised via activities such as outreach and admissions policy (e.g., affirmative action is apparent in Australia but not the UK). High schools play (at best) a passive role, but directed by the policy, the medical schools and applicants work hard to achieve WP/WA to medicine. In both contexts, staff are key mobilisers of WP/WA, but with little guidance in how to enact policy. In Australia, policy drivers plus associated entry structures mean the medical profession exerts significant influence.

Keeping academic excellence as the obligatory passage point to medical school shapes the whole network of WP/WA and perpetuates inequality. Only by addressing this can the network reconfigure.