Medical student’s admission criteria and their relationship to academic performance among medical students in Moi and Egerton Universities, Kenya

Abstract

Background: Admission into Kenyan public universities’ medical schools is either by Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service(KUCCPS) or on self-sponsorship programmes (SSP) basis. The KUCCPS selected students have strong O-level grades in all subjects, with specific cluster science subjects and cumulative points. The SSP students need to have minimum university entry requirements and cluster subjects for admission unto the medicine and surgery (MBCHB) programme. Objectives: The study aimed at analysing the relationship between Medical Students Admission Characteristics (sponsorship, sex, KCSE grade) and their performance in preclinical and clinical levels at Medical schools of Moi University (MU) and Egerton University (EU). The Study sought to; i) determine the relationship between medical students’ KCSE grades and their performance. ii)Analyzesponsorship basedthe performance of medical students. iii)Analyze the performance by gender in preclinical and clinical courses. Methods: The study utilized ex post facto research design for Retrospective record review (3R) of 272 medical students of academic year 2007/08, 2008/09 and 2009/10 as cohort classes of Moi and Egerton Universities. The Target Population was Public Universities’ Medical students (MBChB) who had been examined at both preclinical and clinical levels. A Data sheet document was used to capture study data. The performance analysis used the t-test and coefficient correlation with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: The results indicated that students’ KCSE grades did not influence performance at preclinical courses at MU (p=0.090) and EU (p=0.088), nor performance at clinical courses at MU (p=0.154) and EU (p=0.474) medical schools. Student’s sponsorship did not influence their performance in preclinical courses at MU (p =0.120) though it did influence at EU (p=0.004), in clinical courses it significantly influenced students’ performance at both schools of MU (p=0.005) and EU (p =0.005) medical schools. Gender did not influence students’ performance in preclinical courses at MU (p=0.949) and EU (p=0.629), but significantly influenced clinical courses performance at MU (p=0.001), However, it and didn’t influence performance at clinical courses atEU (p=0.819). . Conclusion: The study concludedthat: i) KCSE aggregate grade was not a predictorat performance in preclinical courses and clinical courses at MU and EU medical schools respectively. ii) Sponsorship did not predict performance in clinical courses at MU though it did at EU and clinical courses at both MU and EU medical schools. iii) Gender did not predict students’ performance in preclinical courses at MU, EU and clinical courses at EU, though it predicts clinical courses performance at MU medical school. Recommendation: The study recommended Medical schools to consider an open entry Examination system for applicants who meet minimum cluster requirements regardless of the KCSE aggregate grade. Sponsorship of students in Medical schools should be considered on equal basis. Farther study on a larger population should be used to carry out a study on the gender influence in the performance in Pre-clinical and clinical courses. Key words:academic performance, admission characteristics, clinical performance, medical student, preclinical performance