Worldwide there is a desire to diversify the physiotherapy workforce to reflect the population it serves (Mason and Sparkes 2002 McMeeken 2007 Threlkeld and Paschal 2007 HEE 2014). Universities have embraced this agenda to widen participation and evidence suggests that the student population is changing. At the same time evidence also suggests that some under-represented groups in pre-registration physiotherapy education (ethnicity gender disability) have lower attainment and greater attrition (Morris and Farmer 1998 Clouten Homma and Shimada 2006 Utzman Riddle and Jewell 2007 Hammond 2009 Hammond 2013 Yeowell 2013a 2013b Naylor Norris and Williams 2014 Williams Norris Cassidy et al. 2015).
However the findings are usually uni-institutional and it is not known if this represents a broader phenomenon.
