PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Brown, Celia AU - Goss, Charlotte AU - Sam, Amir H TI - Is the awarding gap at UK medical schools influenced by ethnicity and medical school attended? A retrospective cohort study AID - 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-075945 DP - 2023 Dec 01 TA - BMJ Open PG - e075945 VI - 13 IP - 12 4099 - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/12/e075945.short 4100 - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/12/e075945.full SO - BMJ Open2023 Dec 01; 13 AB - Objectives To better characterise the Awarding Gap (AG) between black, Asian and other minority ethnic (BAME) and white students in UK undergraduate medical education by examining how it affects eight minority ethnicity subgroups (Bangladeshi, black, Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, mixed, other Asian background and other ethnic background) and whether the AG varies by medical school attended.Design Retrospective cohort study.Setting Data extracted from the UK Medical Education Database on students enrolled at 33 UK medical schools in the academic years starting 2012, 2013 and 2014.Participants 16 020 ‘Home’ tuition fee status students who sat the University Clinical Aptitude Test on entry to university and obtained a UK Foundation Programme (UKFP) application score on exit.Primary outcome measure UKFP Z-scores on exit from medical school.Results There were significant differences in UKFP Z-scores between ethnicity subgroups. After white students, mixed ethnicity students performed best (coefficient −0.15 standard deviations [SD]) compared with white students, (95% confidence interval [CI] −0.23 to −0.08, p<0.001) and Pakistani students scored lowest (coefficient −0.53 SD, 95% CI −0.60 to −0.46, p<0.001). In pairwise comparisons of scores between all nine individual ethnicity subgroups, 15/36 were statistically significant. The AG varied considerably across medical schools. The largest gap showed the coefficient for BAME was −0.83 SD compared with white students (95% CI −1.18 to −0.49, p<0.001), while the smallest demonstrated no statistically significant difference in performance between BAME and white students (+0.05 SD, 95% CI −0.32 to 0.42, p=0.792).Conclusions BAME students are significantly disadvantaged by the current UK medical education system. There are clear differences in medical school outcomes between students from different ethnicity subgroups, and the size of the AG also varies by medical school attended. Urgent and effective action must be taken to address the AG and achieve an equal learning environment for our future doctors.No data are available. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplemental information. The raw data used in this study cannot be shared as they are stored on an online Safe Haven with limited access and, while in their raw form, are not compliant with HESA statistical disclosure controls. The data included in the manuscript and supplemental tables have been adjusted to comply with HESA disclosure controls.