To promote diversity
Medicine to raffle off most spots
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Medicine will use both tests and a lottery to select the next batch of first-year students. This is the second UU programme with an enrolment cap to select students in this manner. Last year, the Psychology programme also decided to use a combination of lottery and the so-called "decentralised selection". Other medical programmes in the Netherlands will probably adopt a lottery system, at least partially.
Those interested in studying Medicine in Utrecht will be invited to participate in a selection day when they must complete a knowledge test, a non-cognitive test, and an essay. The candidates with the best scores on the selection day will be admitted directly to the programme, but only 20 percent of the spots (or 59 spots, to be more exact, in the next academic year) will be allocated in this way. The remaining 238 places will be allocated through a lottery system in which candidates' high school grades will not count.
Decentralised selection criticised
Lottery systems are allowed in the Netherlands now thanks to a new law that was passed in 2023. Programmes with a set number of spots are no longer forced to select their candidates through decentralised selection. They can now also use a lottery system or a combination of selection methods.
The law was changed due to increasing criticism of decentralised selection as the only means of admission. In this system, candidates whose parents are wealthy and/or have gone to university have an advantage as their parents can either help them prepare for the selection day or pay for an expensive preparatory course.
By switching to a lottery, the Faculty of Medicine wants to reduce inequality of opportunity in its admissions and increase the diversity of its student population. "We strive for a diverse and inclusive student population and believe it is important to offer everyone in society equal opportunities for admission to our programme, as much as this is possible within the framework of the admission requirements," the Medical School writes on its website.