Student perceptions of the influence of visual imagery in medical school application prospectuses in the UK.

摘要

A recent study of visual images in the application prospectuses of all the UK medical schools noted the possible influence of these images on the decision of prospective students to apply to medical school (Chowdhury et al. 2009). We sent a semi-structured questionnaire to all applicants -who applied to one UK medical school until we had obtained 300 fully completed questionnaires. "We found that 14 (4.7%) of the applicants stated that they -were 'to a great extent' and 105 (35.0%) 'to some extent' influenced by the choice of visual images in the application prospectus. We were surprised by several comments about the images allowing applicants to vfvidly imagine themselves as future students engaged in learning at the chosen medical school. The importance of the portrayal of a friendly teaching and learning atmosphere, such as students smiling and looking happy, was also noted by several applicants, as -was modern and high-quality teaching facilities. In contrast, the 60.3% (181) who stated that they were 'to a little extent' or 'to no extent' influenced by the images in the application prospectus made comments about the curriculum and the quality of teaching as factors that influenced their choice of the medical school.