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1986 Cohort

The second of the three cohort studies carried out from St Mary's. Like the first, this study primarily looked at applicants to St. Mary's, but five years on that number had doubled as St Mary's became more and more popular.  The name follows standard UCCA / UCAS conventions, in terms of the year in which applicants wanted to enter medical school, which was October 1986. However, the candidates had applied a year previously, in Autumn 1985.

Participants. The participants consisted of all applicants to St. Mary's Hospital Medical School. Each of these applicants would typically have applied to five or six different UK medical schools, and hence the survey contained a large number of applicants and entrants at each of the UK medical schools.

Data collection. The participants were studied at the following times, with the following instruments:

Study
Brief description
Applicants survey
Applicant questionnaire sent as soon as possible after the UCCA form had arrived at the medical school. The questionnaire consisted of 16 A4 sides in a folded, printed booklet and contained a wide range of demographic, educational, psychometric and attitude questions. 
Final Year questionnaire
Questionnaire sent to students in the middle of their final year at medical school. The questionnaire consisted of 20 A4 sides in a folded, printed booklet, and asked some of the same questions as applicants had been asked, and in addition questions were included about perceptions of teaching and of the various subjects taught in the course.
 2009 questionnaire
Questionnaire (pdf 59kb) sent to all doctors registered with the General Medical Council and others for whom addresses were available. Four A4 pages, with a range of measures, some of which have been used in previous surveys. The survey which took place from March to December 2009 was part of a broader one sent to a number of different cohorts that we have studied.

Click here for a full list of research studies on medical education, many of which have included information about the 1986 cohort.