Black students are over 50% likelier to drop out of federally funded medical science doctoral programs than their peers, a new study has found.
Seven researchers published the study Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. They analyzed the attrition rates of 4,702 students who started dual M.D.-Ph.D. programs to become government physician-researchers from 2004 to 2012 and whose enrollments were inactive by 2020.
The researchers found 29% of 215 Black students did not finish their doctorates, much higher than the 17% of White students and shares of other racial and ethnic groups that withdrew. Black attrition rates were unchanged from an earlier study in 1995-2000, the study noted.
“Black medical students report disparate experiences of mistreatment and discrimination, which may lead to depression, burnout and leaving training,” the researchers wrote.
They said underrepresentation in the biomedical sciences could damage medical research and care for Black Americans.
“The observation that Black students who are accepted into M.D.-Ph.D. programs are more likely to leave than their peers is concerning and highlights the necessity of supporting Black trainees throughout their training,” Mytien Nguyen, a co-author of the study and biologist at the Yale School of Medicine, told The Washington Times.
The study helps explain why fewer than 2% of medical science researchers at the National Institutes of Health were Black in 2020 and confirms a lack of progress in Black retention rates since the 1990s, she added.
“This is truly alarming and calls for future studies to understand and mitigate the persistent high attrition rate for Black M.D.-Ph.D. trainees,” Ms. Nguyen said.
The findings come as the Supreme Court recently overturned racial preferences in university admissions, dealing a blow to social justice advocates who say higher education is unfairly biased against Blacks.
Attrition rates will likely worsen as more Black students contend with heavier student debt loads and more financial obligations to family members than their peers, said Omekongo Dibinga, a professor of intercultural communications affiliated with the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University.
“Another reason that many are leaving programs is due to outright racism and bias,” Mr. Dibinga, who was not involved in the study, told The Times.
“Black students at every level are experiencing increased hostility from classmates, professors and even administrators,” he added. “Even before affirmative action was ended, these programs often did not feel welcoming for Black students, whose credentials are constantly questioned.”
Reached for comment, some critics of racial preferences disagreed with this view.
They said the study confirms affirmative action policies put Black medical students at a competitive disadvantage by lowering admissions standards for ill-prepared applicants.
“No qualified vetting is required when quotas are involved,” said Gregory Quinlan, a former registered nurse who leads the conservative Center for Garden State Families in New Jersey. “How deflating and discouraging it is to those human beings pushed into Ph.D. and M.D. programs who are not ready or qualified for the rigors of the field.”
“Higher retention rates will be achieved when race-blind admissions are achieved,” added Peter Wood, president of the conservative National Association of Scholars and a former associate provost at Boston University.
The study found 57.9% of students starting M.D.-Ph.D. programs in 2004-12 were White. An additional 21.5% were Asian, 5.6% Hispanic, 4.6% Black, 3.5% multiracial, 0.2% from a U.S. indigenous group and 6.7% reported “other” as their race or ethnicity.
More than six in 10 of the students were men and 83.6% completed their degrees.
These findings suggest affirmative action did not help Black students persevere after getting them into highly specialized technical programs, said Michael Warder, a California-based business consultant and former vice chancellor at Pepperdine University.
“It appears racial preferences are active in recruitment but not in the actual substance of the teaching and grading,” Mr. Warder said in an email.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.