The Educational Performance Measure (EPM) component will evolve from the current academic quartiles, and refers to a score produced by the applicant’s medical school which reflects the applicant’s achievements and performance on a range of assessments in relation to their cohort up to the point of application to the Foundation Programme. It is envisaged that the EPM would be produced using a specified and standardised framework of existing performance measures.
Consultation
There have been two in-depth consultations with all UK medical schools to identify and evaluate the current methods of calculating quartiles, and the range of assessments – type and number - used by the different medical schools. A pilot looking at a proposed method of calculating the EPM was carried out in August 2010 and the exercise demonstrated the complexity of the proposed framework. The EPM will be piloted alongside the current system during the 2011/2012 academic year.
Task and Finish Group
In order to address the complexity of the EPM, a Task and Finish Group, with representation from students, schools, employers and foundation schools was set up. The role of the group was to consult and carry out research, with the aim of making recommendations on how to calculate the EPM score. This included rules on how to ensure the EPM is reliable, robust, representative of a student’s performance up to the point of their application to the Foundation Programme, valid and fair, as well as being a legally compliant framework that is not too costly (in terms of time and resources) to administer and quality assure.
After considering all the evidence it was recommended that schools would decide how to calculate the EPM locally, but would be required to publish how the score is produced (including information on which assessments are used and the weightings between years) and its methods for giving students points for their performance at medical school and whether this differs for students on different programmes e.g. graduate entry. It has been recommended that the EPM move to a decile point system, rather than the current quartiles. Once medical schools publish how they are going to calculate the EPM locally, students will be able to discuss this and any concerns they have about this directly with the medical school.
Applicants would continue to receive additional points for degrees, prizes, publications and presentations. A maximum of 5 points will be available for degrees and a maximum of 2 points would be available for prizes, publications and presentations. The individual medical school would allocate these points locally.
These recommendations are currently being considered by the Project Group.
Changes will be introduced gradually so as to not disadvantage those students already in the later years of their programme.
A Common Framework
A common framework based primarily on the results of assessments of applied knowledge and clinical skills will be developed. The EPM differs from the current quartiles in that:
• It will be more robust than current quartile scores, which are not currently produced to a standard specification
• There may be separate scores for clinical skills and knowledge based on performance at medical school
• It will be more granular than quartiles
• The pilots of EPM will help to produce a standard specification and determine the effectiveness and practicality of producing an EPM score
• It is envisaged that the EPM scores will be combined with the SJT scores to give an overall score which will be used for selection purposes. The pilots will consider the relative weightings of the EPM and SJT scores and how they should be combined to produce an overall score for selection purposes.