White men are significantly underrepresented in medical school, says research published in the BMJ this month (2004;329:597-600). The study, done by researchers at Oxford University, found that white men now comprise 26% of all UK medical students, despite making up 44% of the UK population. It also suggested that UK medical schools were increasingly dominated by white women and students from ethnic minorities. Researchers looked at data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), the NHS national database of consultants in England, and the UK Medical Careers Research Group, which spanned the last 30 years. Nearly all medical school graduates in 1974 were white (97%), but by 2000 this had reduced to 74%, with 26% made up of ethnic minorities. Most students from an ethnic background were Asian. Asian students accounted for 19% of new medical students in 2001, although Asian people make up 7% of the UK population. The researchers wrote, “From less than 2% of newly qualified doctors in the early 1970s, it [the percentage of newly qualified doctors from ethnic minorities] will soon approach 30%, well in excess of the representation of people from ethnic minorities in the general population.” This raises important questions for policy makers: should the ethnic mix of intake to medical schools broadly reflect the ethnic mix of the community from which students are drawn? “I say chaps, we're going to be extinct” “The high representation of ethnic minorities, and specifically those of Asian origin, indicates high academic achievement by them. It probably indicates that many of the most able school pupils from these ethnic groups, and perhaps particularly women, choose medicine as a career.” The researchers called for further studies into the reasons behind the under-representation of white male medical students. The paper also said that the NHS was heavily dependent …