February top picks: new beginnings

Midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, 1 February is the celebration of Imbolc, a Gaelic festival celebrating the beginning of spring—a time for new beginnings and new life.The UK Foundation Programme Office (UKFPO), which operates and develops the foundation programme for UK doctors in their first two years after graduation, announced new beginnings of its own in February. After a decision in February 2023, the specialised foundation programme is to come under UKFPO’s new “preference informed allocation” system of recruitment. In this system, candidates are given an algorithmically generated ranking. The specialised foundation programme represents the earliest stage at which doctors in the UK can enter an academic training pathway, and academics, clinicians, and students have expressed concern about the selection criteria. The old system of allocation to specialised foundation programmes involved a separate application, with candidates being ranked on the basis of their previous academic outputs…
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