Holding a mirror to society? The socio-demographic characteristics of students commencing health professional programmes, and all courses, at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka (the University of Otago), 1994-2023

AIM: To present selected key findings from a longitudinal analysis of the socio-demographic characteristics of students entering all courses at & Omacr;t & amacr;kou Whakaihu Waka (the University of Otago), all health professional programmes combined, and 11 individual health professional programmes between 1994 and 2023. METHOD: Data sources: 1) university electronic collections of student data (programme details, demographics, schooling, home address), and 2) publicly available datasets (some socio-demographic variables). Analyses included counts and proportions of commencing students, disaggregated by time period and socio-demographic variables, and commencement rates per 100,000 population aged 18-29 years. RESULTS: During this 30-year period, there was a notable increase in the overall proportion of domestic health professional programme students who were M & amacr;ori or Pacific, and an increase in enrolments of students from rural backgrounds. The socio-economic profile of incoming students remained unchanged, with students being highly skewed towards those from more socio-economically privileged backgrounds. The proportion of domestic health professional programme students who were female increased across all years, reaching nearly two-thirds by the study end. CONCLUSION: While efforts to enhance health professional student diversity have had a positive impact, the university's vision of a health workforce that represents M & amacr;ori and the diverse contexts of Aotearoa New Zealand's society will require long-term ongoing commitment.