New Zealand medical educators are ¡°deeply concerned¡±?about the new government¡¯s plan to review selective entry programmes for M¨¡ori and islander students.

In its??with the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers (Act), the National Party of prime minister Christopher Luxon has vowed to ¡°examine¡± the University of Auckland¡¯s M¨¡ori and Pacific Admission Scheme (Mapas) and a similar programme at the University of Otago to ¡°determine if they are delivering desired outcomes¡±.

It is one of many pledges that reflect the new government¡¯s scepticism of affirmative action schemes. National¡¯s agreements with its junior coalition partners also include commitments to compel government agencies to prioritise their services ¡°on the basis of need, not race¡±, communicate primarily in English and award government contracts ¡°without racial discrimination¡±.

Meanwhile, research??in the journal?BMJ Open?has concluded that preferential entry schemes for medical students should be strengthened rather than wound back. The study by Auckland and Otago health academics found that M¨¡ori and Pasifika students remained under-represented in medical schools despite decades of efforts to boost their numbers.

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Of the 2,858 enrolled medical students between 2016 and 2020, around 17 per cent were M¨¡ori and 7 per cent were Pasifika. While these figures are similar to M¨¡ori and Pasifika shares of New Zealand¡¯s overall population, they are well short of parity with the youth population ¨C particularly in the North Island, where about 40 per cent of young people are M¨¡ori or Pacific Islanders, according to lead author Warwick Bagg.

Professor Bagg, acting dean of Auckland¡¯s medical school, said the latest workforce statistics showed that fewer than 5 per cent of New Zealand doctors were M¨¡ori and about 2 per cent were Pasifika. ¡°We are way behind in terms of those numbers,¡± he said.

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¡°The population of doctors as a whole should mirror the society?that they take an oath to serve. If the government wants data, here¡¯s the data. [Preferential entry] policies definitely help, [but] there¡¯s more to be done. We¡¯ve got to make up for all of the decades before. Any rollback of those policies is going to be devastating.¡±

Professor Bagg said a socially representative medical workforce was vital to M¨¡ori and Pasifika?people, who suffered disproportionately from chronic communicable diseases, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, heart disease and cancer. The average M¨¡ori lived seven years less than the average non-M¨¡ori, he said.

The University of Otago said the long-running??in its health sciences division, like Mapas, was ¡°transforming the face of the country¡¯s medical workforce to be more reflective of the population it serves¡±.

Acting dean Tim Wilkinson said his school was now graduating up to 90 M¨¡ori and Pacific doctors a year compared?with about 18 in 2009. ¡°When we graduated our first large cohort from the initiative, there were fewer than 500 M¨¡ori medical doctors in all of New Zealand. We have massively lifted that number with our programme alone.¡±

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He said qualification completion rates for M¨¡ori and Pacific medical students were over 90 per cent. Professor Bagg said M¨¡ori and Pasifika graduation rates in the Auckland programme were similar.

Simone Watkins, a paediatrician with Samoan heritage who graduated through the Mapas programme in 2011, said she had often felt ¡°slightly misunderstood¡± during her medical studies. She said the social support she received, rather than the selective admission pathway, had been the most valuable aspect of the scheme.

¡°We were always looking to help each other out and give each other an arm up. That¡¯s not always the case in other communities, from what I¡¯ve seen. The challenge that we feel ¨C or at least I feel ¨C is always trying to stand up and say, ¡®I belong here and I¡¯m good enough to be here¡¯. That can get quite exhausting. On top of that, you¡¯re carrying what some of us feel is the burden of your whole community.¡±

Dr Watkins is now in the??of a PhD investigating congenital heart disease among M¨¡ori and Pasifika children. She said resources should not be expended reviewing a programme that was ¡°extremely successful¡± in shaping ¡°what our health workforce might look like in the future¡±.

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¡°We know that there¡¯s this younger generation of M¨¡ori and Pasifika people in New Zealand. As they all grow up and the population balance differs and becomes more diverse, I just want to make sure that we¡¯re going to be adequately prepared for that.¡±

Times Higher Education?sought comment from the newly established office of the minister for tertiary education and skills, Penny Simmonds.

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john.ross@timeshighereducation.com