New grant for Access to Medicine
23 Nov 2001, PR 31/01 King’s College London has been awarded a grant of £878,000 by the Pool of London Partnership (PLP) to help improve employment prospects, education and skills, and increase the career aspirations of young people in deprived areas of London.The Access to Medicine programme was launched last year to help bright young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, who would not normally achieve the necessary A Level grades, to train as doctors. Over the next five years, a total of 200 students from Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Westminster and Tower Hamlets will be accepted to study at King’s College London’s GKT School of Medicine through the Access programme.
The PLP grant will enable the GKT School of Medicine to work with local schools and other education providers to offer an extensive outreach programme for students at GCSE and A Level. This work will include careers events, provision of GCSE coursework projects related to medicine, computer-aided learning support and work experience placements, for example within universities and the NHS.
With qualification attainment levels in maths and science well below the national average in some inner city London boroughs, the project aims not only to raise educational standards, but also to encourage students to pursue higher education, especially in health and medical fields.
The new outreach elements of the Access to Medicine programme are set to benefit a large number of students, with almost 5,000 students across the five boroughs expected to take part in at least one element of the programme by March 2007.
Gavin Brown, Schools Liaison and Project Coordinator for the Access to Medicine Programme at the GKT School of Medicine said: “The GKT School of Medicine is committed to widening participation for medicine and other healthcare professions. However, we don’t just want to talent-spot a few bright individuals from inner city schools. This outreach work will help improve the employment prospects of a far greater number of local students.”
Helen Woolard, Project Assistant at the PLP commented: “The PLP is extremely pleased to be able to support this project over the next five years. The GKT School of Medicine is situated in one of the most deprived areas of London, and we are particularly keen to help improve educational resources available to young people in this area.”
Notes to editors King's College London
King’s is one of the two oldest and largest colleges of the University of London with some 12,200 undergraduate and over 4,500 postgraduates in ten schools of study. The College is among the country’s top four higher education institutions for the number of highest-rated subject areas for research quality. It is in the top group of five universities for research earnings and has an annual turnover of £285 million and research income from grants and contracts in excess of £80 million (1999-2000).
Access to Medicine Programme
King’s launched this programme in 2000 as a major initiative to widen access to its medical degree courses. The College is the largest centre for medical education in Europe, accepting 360 students onto the MBBS medicine degree each year. Over the next five years Access to Medicine will allow for an extra 200 students to study MMBS, with these students recruited on the basis of their commitment, ability and potential rather than their actual or predicted A Level grades. This alternative route of entry will entail equally rigorous assessment procedures devised by the Department of Education and Professional Studies at King’s.
Further informationPublic Relations Department
Email:
pr@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7848 3202
This information is provided by the
Public Relations Department
Tel: 020-7848 3202 Fax: 020-7848 3739 Email:
pr@kcl.ac.uk
