Med school applicants grades according to sex

FILE - In this July 8, 2011 file photo applicants for the medical university sit in a hall of the Vienna Fair prior to their tests, in Vienna, Austria. (AP)

VIENNA – Vienna's medical university says that this year's applicants to medical school will be graded according to gender, with the results weighed toward women.

Deputy dean of studies Karin Guiterrez-Lobos says an unspecified "adjustment factor" will be included in female applicants' results when they are graded on July 6 entry exams.

She told the Austria Press Agency Wednesday that results will then be evaluated to see if the measures should be made permanent.

Fifty-six percent of applicants who took the test last year were women but they comprised only 43 percent of those who passed.

Guiterrez-Lobos says the idea is "not to give women an advantage but to see whether this adjustment cancels the disadvantages" faced by female applicants.