Foundation programme shake up

Final year medical students are being encouraged to participate in pilots designed to test more accurately and transparently students’ aptitude. This is in preparation for a revised selection process into the foundation programme, the postgraduate training programme for junior doctors in the UK.

Currently, there are 7703 places on the foundation programme, but the UK Foundation Programme Office announced last year that there had been 184 more applicants than places available. The Medical Schools Council is seeking to design a system of evaluation that compares nationwide applicants more fairly. After smaller pilots in the past year, the council is asking all medical students in their final year to take part in a full scale pilot called the Parallel Recruitment Exercise, which will comprise a situational judgment test and the educational performance measure. These will run alongside the foundation programme application service this autumn, between November 2011 and January 2012, to