Suzanne Fikrat-Wevers
PhD candidate
s.fikrat-wevers@erasmusmc.nl
Research
My research project focuses on medical school selection and applicant/student diversity. I have been studying how selection affects student diversity, and how applicants’ demographic characteristics (i.e., gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, previous education) are related to selection outcomes. Additionally, I am interested in how applicants perceive selection procedures, and how their opinions are related to their demographic characteristics and performance. A final topic of interest is the predictive validity of different admission methods, which relates to the question of whether admission methods can accurately predict school performance. By combining the results of these studies, I will advise selection committees on how to build a fair and effective selection procedure.
Most proud of
I am proud of the fact that we successfully collected data at five different medical schools, all with a unique selection procedure, as part of a NRO consortium project. We have combined demographic data of the applicants with their selection outcomes. This way, we will not only be able to examine whether applicants have equal chances of being admitted based on their demographic characteristics, but we can also identify what instruments were more equitable than others.
Main motivation
As an educational scientist, I have always been interested in how we can create high-quality education that reflects values such as equity and inclusiveness, and in which diversity is considered a strength. I am also fascinated by the complex processes that are related to medical school selection, which makes it challenging to combine the interests of many stakeholders, political and societal discourses, and evidence-based research. Furthermore, I hope for making an impact, so I appreciate that my PhD project concerns practice-oriented research.
Get in touch with me about
Anyone with questions about medical school selection and diversity could get in touch with me.
Publications
Overview of Suzanne's publications: click here