Characteristics of Students who enter Occupational Therapy Education through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) Clearing System

In a series of reports since 2000, the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom (UK) confirmed a major expansion in the number of doctors, nurses and other health care professionals to be educated (Department of Health [DH] 2000a, 2000b, 2002). This increase in numbers included occupational therapists and augmented the more modest growth in the number of education places available in the UK noted over previous years (College of Occupational Therapists [COT] 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001). Unfortunately, this increase occurred at a time when there was a decrease in the number of applications to the profession (Craik et al 2001). Craik et al (2001) noted that little of the research into recruitment to occupational therapy education since the 1960s had taken place in the UK. In summarising the literature, they identified that the principal features attracting applicants to the profession were working with people, especially people with disabilities, and aspects of the profession, such as interest, challenge and variety. In more recent studies, material factors such as salary and job availability began to feature more. These features might be similar to those that attracted recruits to other health professions. However, most studies seemed to have assumed that students applied to occupational therapy alone and had made that decision before the age of 20 years. For example, in a national survey of occupational therapy students in the USA which encompassed 60 professional occupational therapy programmes, Wyrick and Stern (1987) obtained results from 1337 students. Of these, 55.5% had decided on a career in occupational therapy by the age of 19 years and 58.7% had applied to an occupational therapy course by the age of 22 years. There is limited reference in the literature to applicants to occupational therapy education having considered other professions. Madill et al (1989) compared 114 occupational therapy, 46 physical therapy and 89 speech therapy students in Canada and found some similarities in their values before commencing their course. Although they were all consistently people orientated, the occupational therapy students placed greater importance than others on creativity and variety. The occupational therapy and physiotherapy students reported that they had considered medically related careers while the speech therapy students had more often considered education-related courses. Since the 1960s, there has been substantial research outside the United Kingdom (UK) on recruitment to occupational therapy education. Recent UK studies have explored the characteristics of mature students (Craik and Alderman 1998), first-year students (Craik et al 2001) and students with a first degree (Craik and Napthine 2001). Based on these studies, a semi-structured, self-report, postal questionnaire gathered data from 50 students who entered the BSc(Hons) Occupational Therapy course at Brunel University, London, via the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service for the UK (UCAS) clearing system. The students tended to be younger and were more likely to be female and Caucasian and to have similar or higher academic qualifications than standardentry students at the same university. The majority first became aware of occupational therapy through previous work in a health care setting, although some did so while researching allied health professions. Although one-third originally had physiotherapy as their first career choice, 92% now considered that occupational therapy was what they wanted to do. The principal reason for applying through the clearing system was timing, with some applicants deciding late in the academic year to study occupational therapy. These findings add further weight to the need to promote the profession.