Encouraging student diversity: a new gateway to veterinary medicine
- Rachel Payne
Rachel Payne graduated in anatomy and human biology from the University of Liverpool in 1998. She taught biomechanics at Brunel University before moving to the Royal Veterinary College in 2003, where she is course director of the Gateway programme. She continues to research the structural and functional basis of human and animal locomotion.
Abstract
MOST UK veterinary students have attended selective/private schools situated in affluent areas and are supported by parents on relatively high incomes. With the aim of increasing the diversity of its graduates, the Royal Veterinary College created the first veterinary widening participation (‘Gateway’) programme in England specifically to target applicants from non-traditional, low income backgrounds. In this article, Rachel Payne explains why the programme — which has been running since September 2005 — came about, and how it works.
- British Veterinary Association. All rights reserved.
