Statement from King's College London

[King's College London]

King’s College London is committed to fair admissions to all our programmes of study. One aspect of this policy is to try and create, as far as possible, a ‘level playing field’ at interview. To assist our policy in medicine and dentistry, we now ask all our medical and dental interview candidates to agree to our non-disclosure policy stating "not to disclose any details in any form concerning the interview, including questions, case study information or procedure to other applicants". We would like to remind our interview candidates of this responsibility.

We have noted two current issues. Firstly, we are becoming increasingly concerned about a growing culture giving legitimacy to attempting to circumvent selection on merit. This culture amongst applicants may in part explain recent increases in cases of plagiarism amongst students within higher education as a whole. For our School of Medicine, we do recommend all those called to interview prepare themselves. They should think through why they are applying to medicine and why specifically to our institution. In particular, they should remind themselves of their personal statement which may be the focus of any questions asked. Please see our website for information on our selections procedures at www.kcl.ac.uk. Secondly, we are noticing more candidates who are obviously ‘over prepared’. Candidates, who might otherwise have secured a place at our institution, are underperforming as they attempt to deliver what they have been told we are looking for. These assumptions may be based on misinformation or rumour. Our interview panels aim to draw the best out of each interview candidate, drawing upon their individual experiences to assess their suitability as a medical student and future health professional. With many more applicants than places, King’s College London will continue to seek out those who are best able to benefit from the education we provide.

For further information on our policies, you can email us at guysadmissions@kcl.ac.uk

Student Admissions Office
King’s College London

[Medic2013]

I didn't apply to KCL but thats a very nice (can't find a better word to use!) statement to put up.

[napooo]

Thankyou so much for the information. We will definitely keep all this in mind.
Can you please tell me to how much extent Indian qualification CBSE are recognised?

[daft]

Thankyou so much for the information. We will definitely keep all this in mind.
Can you please tell me to how much extent Indian qualification CBSE are recognised?

To get an answer to that question I think you are best off contacting admissions directly via phone or e-mail.

[aux1157]

King’s College London is committed to fair admissions to all our programmes of study. One aspect of this policy is to try and create, as far as possible, a ‘level playing field’ at interview . . . .

. . . . we are becoming increasingly concerned about a growing culture giving legitimacy to attempting to circumvent selection on merit. This culture amongst applicants may in part explain recent increases in cases of plagiarism amongst students within higher education as a whole.

Dear people who work at king’s admissions,

I have been reading these posts about your interviews with interest.

I would like to see some scientific evidence that there is a relationship between sharing interview information and plagiarism in higher education. I don’t think that this evidence exists. But in any case since this information will be shared anyway – I submit that it is better that it be done on this forum rather than only among the private school elites – as we all know it will be. Equal access to this information is a much better way of creating a “level playing field”.

You may be the last word on who gets a place to read medicine at your institution but you are not the last word on how we should feel about this admissions process. The moral dimensions of this question are not as simple as you make them out to be.

When those of you who work at Kings admissions can state with equal conviction that you are gravely concerned about the injustices in the admissions process in terms of the way students from working class backgrounds are at a disadvantage in the application process I will take your moral stance a little more seriously. If Kings admissions has anything to say with such great moral conviction on the class system in Britain – how unjust it is that many students are at an educational disadvantage which skews the whole admissions process and relatedly how terrible it is that most doctors don’t come from the same background as the patients that they are treating, then I will listen.

You are really not doing yourselves any favours by continuing with this nonsense. If you want to make students sign papers saying that they won’t reveal questions that is certainly your right but please remember this board is for students (and for admissions people that want to help students and answer their questions– see the Swansea thread for example where Claire Jones is doing such an excellent job) – it is not here for admissions people to come and scare applicants with misinformation (I refer again to the link between sharing interview questions and plagiarism that you made in your post).

[Clarkey]

If anybody has any issues with the topics raised in this thread please either PM a mod or get in touch with King's directly.

[blueberrypie]

Will do.

[Clarkey]

Will do.

I know you've been trying to get your post count up, but come on now...Please don't resurrect old threads unless you have something useful to say! I know its exam time and we're all procrastinating but it will all be over before too long

[1202black]

I might admit this is one hell of a thread. Thank for the info

[zainab90]

i've got an interview at king's in december and this information is definitely very helpful