| Abstract: | An affirmative-action programme was introduced in Auckland in 1972 to increase the proportion and absolute number of entrants to medical school from the indigenous or Maori population and those of Pacific Island ancestry. One hundred and forty-seven students have entered the course through this programme, the percentage of females being higher than that of the non-affirmative category. Seventy-five have graduated – a graduation rate of 78%. Twenty-seven (18%) have been lost from the course mainly through academic failure, This loss is much higher than the 8% found for the remaining medical student population. The subsequent careers of those lost from the course has been satisfactory, some graduating from other faculties and some from polytechnics. Although such a programme remains controversial it has enabled a large number of persons to enter medical school who would not have been able to do so through the standard admitting process. |
