In November 2020, the UKFPO announced that the Educational Achievement (EA) score would be removed from the Foundation Allocation process from FP2023.
Up until FP2022 the EPM consisted of a maximum score of 43 for the academic decile (the decile score range was 34-43) and up to 7 points for additional Educational Achievements (EA): maximum of 5 points for an additional degree and 2 points for individual publications.
For FP2023 applications onwards, with the removal of EA score, the UKFP application score now consists of two component parts of equal weighting (maximum of 100 points): Educational Performance Measure (EPM) (maximum of 50 points) and the Situational Judgement Test (SJT) (maximum of 50 points). The EPM decile score range will now be 41-50.
The EPM is a measure of clinical and non-clinical skills, knowledge, and performance up to the point of application to the Foundation Programme. All applicants to the Foundation Programme, including the Specialised Foundation Programme and Foundation Priority Programmes will be awarded an EPM score.
The EPM is worth a maximum of 50 points and for FP2023 is now comprised of just the decile score. The SJT score will then be added to this, to give the total score which will be used for allocation to a foundation programme.
| Component | Number of points available |
| Medical school performance (calculated in deciles) | 41 – 50 |
| Situational Judgement Test (SJT) score | Maximum of 50 |
| Maximum number of points available | 100 |
If an applicant reapplies the following year, or applies for the first time after graduation, the original EPM decile score will carry forward (i.e. any subsequent assessments will not be taken into account).
Medical School performance in deciles (41-50 points)
Applicants are assessed and ranked on their performance at medical school in relation to the graduating cohort up to the point of application to the Foundation Programme.
The graduating cohort is defined as all students in their final year at the point of application to the Foundation Programme, including those applying to the Specialised Foundation Programme and Foundation Priority Programmes, as well as those who have chosen not to apply. Local discretion may be used to determine whether applicants on different entry routes (for example graduate entry and standard entry courses) are treated as a single cohort or separate cohorts for the purpose of ranking.
The N applicants within a cohort will be competition ranked according to their overall score and allocated into deciles according to the following rules:
- Each applicant will have a rank place between 1 (highest scoring) and N (lowest scoring)
- Applicants with the same score will share the same rank place.
- Where x applicants share the same rank place, the next x-1 rank places will remain empty.
- The rank places will be allocated in order (from 1 to N) to ten roughly equal-sized groups, so that each group contains N/10 rank places, rounded to the nearest whole number.
Each applicant is assigned an EPM decile score as follows:
| Decile rank | Number of points |
| 1 | 50 |
| 2 | 49 |
| 3 | 48 |
| 4 | 47 |
| 5 | 46 |
| 6 | 45 |
| 7 | 44 |
| 8 | 43 |
| 9 | 42 |
| 10 | 41 |
Additional information for UK applicants graduating on or after 3 August 2021
Medical school performance is assessed using a range of assessments. It is up to each medical school to define which assessments will be used and the relative weighting of each, and to communicate these to applicants from their school.
There is no minimum number of assessments to be considered in constructing deciles. However, only assessments which achieve a fair spread of scores, or grades should be included. Pass / fail assessments should not count within the decile score, unless there is a sufficient number of pass/fail assessments that an above-average applicant is likely to fail at least a few. A school may choose whether or not to include Student Selected Components.
In 2011, students, employers and all medical schools agreed that assessments used to calculate EPM decile scores should adhere to the principles below: –
- Be summative (and hence subject to formal controls)
- Cover clinical knowledge, skills and performance
- Cover non-clinical performance
- Cover all aspects of the curriculum assessed up to the end of the penultimate year at medical school
- Represent the average performance of the applicants over time, rather than being limited to a snap-shot
- Include written and practical forms of assessment
Additional information for applicants who are applying via the eligibility process
Medical school performance will be assessed using a range of assessments. It is up to each medical school to define which assessments will be used and the relative weighting of each. As part of an applicant’s Eligibility application, they are required to submit a Dean’s statement.
As part of this statement, the Dean of the graduating medical school is required to confirm a) the size of the year group and b) the applicant’s class rank in the year group. The decile rank will then be calculated.