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Support for Legal Challenge to University of Otago Medical School Admissions

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The man behind a court challenge to Otago University’s medical school admissions scheme is getting support from other parents whose children missed out.

The medical school’s Mirror on Society policy, introduced in 2012, means domestic students fitting into special categories get preferential entry into Otago medical school.

The North Island father, whose name was suppressed by the High Court this week, has alleged the admissions scheme is operated contrary to the Education Act.

University leaders say they will “strenuously oppose” the legal challenge and limiting special category entrants would “slow the rate at which a representative health workforce could be achieved”.

[…] For the 2020 intake, 120 of the 202 places available to first year Health Sciences students went to those entering under special categories. Of those, 79 (39 per cent) were Maori and Pasifika. There is currently no limit to the proportion of the places available for special category students.

Read the article in full here and comment on it on The BFD

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