Medical School Research Internship – Financial and structural barriers to success
Closing Date: 25/10/2024

Role Overview

Please note: these internships are only available to current undergraduate students in Lancaster University Medical School.

This internship is offered as part of an exciting pilot of research opportunities for Medical School undergraduate students (MBChB and SaES). Each internship will be supervised by an academic member of staff. These opportunities are designed to give students experience of contributing to university research. These internships would be ideal for students considering postgraduate study, intercalated degrees or specialised foundation programmes.

Pay Rate:               £11.44 per hour + £1.38 holiday pay

Closing date:         Fri 25^th October

Interview date:             Thursday 31^st October or Monday 4^th November

Start Date:                      2^nd Dec 2024

End Date:                        18^th April 2025

Hours; Up to 5 hours per week

Duration: 20 weeks

Location: Work from home, the campus library, or use the hot desk space in Health Innovation One. Meetings with supervisor will be remote via Microsoft Teams.

Widening participation (WP) in higher education (HE) aims to make the sector accessible and inclusive to students regardless of identity or background, improve social mobility, and reduce inequalities. Despite a wide range of initiatives aimed at fostering fair access to HE, outcomes for WP students continue to be worse than their more privileged counterparts. 

This is particularly stark in medical education. Medicine is classed as an elite profession, traditionally dominated by white, male, middle- or upper-class people, often from medical families. Some advances to diversify the profession have succeeded, but only 4% of medics come from a working-class background, and these doctors will experience an average class pay gap of £3,640.

Medical student activism, such as the #LiveableNHSBursary campaign, has highlighted how financial and structural barriers embedded within the national medical curriculum negatively impact WP students’ mental health, academic achievement, and career progression.

Most WP in Medicine activities and research currently focus on fair access, but the barriers to success, once candidates are admitted to medical school, are under-researched. This research will critically examine financial and structural barriers to success in medical education to develop an evidence base for change in HE and medical education policy and practice.

Major duties

• Design and carry out a literature review according to a brief
• Critically review the results of the literature review to identify gaps in knowledge and inform future research
• Contribute to research outputs as a co-author, such as a blog and/or journal article

Person Specification

The successful candidate should be able to demonstrate:

• You must be a current student registered on BSc Sports and Exercise Science, MBChB Surgery, Medicine and Surgery with a Gateway Year and in Years 2-5 of study.
• Strong interest in undertaking research. Previous research experience is not essential as support will be provided, but a willingness to learn is essential.
• A passion for social justice in education and an interest in the research topic
• An ability to work independently
• Good critical and creative thinking skills
• Good attention to detail
• A thorough approach to collating and organizing information
• Good time management and organisational skills
• Good written presentation skills
• Good IT skills including Microsoft 365 and bibliographic software

Please apply through ERS with:

1. A CV including your education history and any work experience (maximum of two full pages) and,
2. A cover letter that explains your interest in research, why you would like to be involved in this particular research internship, and how you meet the criteria outlined in the person specification.

For any informal information about this role please contact Dr Brigit McWade [email protected]