Qualitative studies on the implicit criteria during the individualized selection procedure for the medical studies at the University of Witten/Herdecke (UW/H)

Zupanic, Michaela; Ehlers, Jan P; Fricke, Julia; Gerken, Ruth-Marie; Hofmann, Marzellus; Nitsche, Janina; Fischer, Martin R; Bauer, Daniel (2019). Qualitative studies on the implicit criteria during the individualized selection procedure for the medical studies at the University of Witten/Herdecke (UW/H). GMS Journal for Medical Education, 36(1) German Medical Science 10.3205/zma001211

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Objective: The individualized two-stage selection procedure for medical studies at Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H) has been in use for more than 30 years and comprises explicit and implicit selection criteria. This analysis aims at identifying the implicit criteria and answering the question whether an internal consistency of these implicit criteria may be verified for the different phases of the selection procedure (when evaluating the statements of purpose, during the selection weekend and during the concluding discussions of assessors).

Methodology: Three qualitative studies on all phases of the selection procedure at UW/H have been conducted for determining the implicit assessment criteria of assessors:
1. statements of purpose in extreme group comparison (12 admissions versus 18 rejections);
2. semi-structured expert interviews (N=25) on the selection weekend;
3. focus group analysis of the concluding discussions on two selection weekends (N=16).

Results: The content analysis of the statements of purpose yielded 14 main categories with significant deviations between extreme groups in the categories school career, reasons for application and reflections as well as regarding the higher education entrance qualification grade. Based on the expert interviews, three main categories could be identified: intellectual ability, motivation and social competence, and the ability to reflect as a cross-content category. The focus group analysis yielded four main categories: performance, personality, personal growth potential and ability to reflect. Most frequently, the ability to reflect was mentioned as an assessment criterion.

Conclusion: The main assessment categories are: motivation for the medical profession and starting studies at UW/H; performance and scholastic aptitude; personality, personal growth potential and social competence, as well as the ability to reflect as the most important basic competence and general category. Assessors consider the ability to reflect as a predictor of lifelong professional development as a physician.

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