Protecting patients or protecting privilege?
Helen Jaques
Wednesday, 02 July 2008 22:26 UTC
Imperial College School of Medicine has withdrawn it’s offer to Majid Ahmed of a place to study medicine because the straight As student from a poor district in Bradford has a spent conviction for burglary.
Talking heads and Ahmed himself seem to think that this is an issue of social mobility, i.e. that Imperial College want to defend the privileges of the affluent middle class.
But is the story really this simple? Were admissions officers simply being cautious in refusing a student with a criminal record in order to protect “confidence in the integrity and probity of its doctors”? Should applicants with a criminal record be considered for places at medical school or is the trust, and potentially the safety, of patients to precious to risk?
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Replies
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It seems severely unfair to Ahmed, doesn’t the Imperial College believe in redemption?
I doubt being free of any criminal conviction was a requirement for getting into the university to begin with.
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The BMJ has reported this week that Ahmed has been offered an interview at Manchester University.
Turns out he had already been rejected from this institution as well as from Imperial College and was likewise appealing the decision. He has also been applying to study medicine for nearly 2 years, without any success. Interesting that he decided to turn the Imperial rejection into a media storm…
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