The move follows claims that the usual format, where candidates are questioned by a panel of academics, could give an advantage to confident and articulate pupils who have been coached in how to respond.
Instead, interviews are being replaced by a “speed dating” style process where each candidate undergoes a series of brief one-on-one “mini-interviews”, solving problems and taking part in roleplays rather than answering general questions about themselves.
The new assessments are seen as fairer because they reward innate skills, such as empathy, rather than eloquence.
It comes as universities face increasing pressure from the Government to broaden their intake and admit more students from poorer families and state schools.
Sixth formers applying this month to study medicine, dentistry or veterinary science at at least five institutions around the UK will undergo the new speed dating style assessments.
The technique, called multiple mini interview (MMI), was developed in universities in Canada and has been researched extensively.
Students spend five minutes with each assessor, a buzzer sounds, or a recorded voice tells them to move on to the next station.
Each interviewer scores the applicant independently and is unaware of how the student has performed at other stations.
At each station, students take part in a role play or are given a scenario in which they must think on their feet and demonstrate important skills.
Institutions which have adopted the new technique include St George’s Medical School, London; Queen’s University, Belfast; Dundee University medical school; Cardiff University school of dentistry; and the Royal Veterinary College, London.
Under the traditional interview system, candidates would have appeared for up to an hour in front of three or four academics, answering questions about their exam results, work experience, hobbies and their reasons for wanting to enter the profession.
The change is the latest aimed at increasing the social mix in medical schools, which have been dominated by middle-class students. Currently, nearly 30 per cent of medicine and dentistry students went to independent schools, which educate just 7 per cent of children.
At St George’s, which has pioneered MMI in the UK, students have been asked to imagine they have accidentally run over and killed their neighbour’s cat and must break the news to them.
“One element of multiple mini interview is fair and equitable access,” said Kenton Lewis, head of widening participation and student recruitment at St George’s where MMI was introduced fully last year.
“Potentially, someone who is educationally advantaged may have had a lot of opportunities to practise interviews and be more used to high level discussion, pulling together a higher level argument, going through that debate process.
“Rather than getting an interview panel to say 'Tell me about the skills you have,’ we are drilling down deeper and saying 'Demonstrate those skills.’
“One of the reasons we believe it is fairer is that we are less likely to be assessing how good somebody is at doing an interview and more likely to be assessing how good they are in the competency.”
The technique also guards against the well-researched tendency of interviewers to appoint students with similar backgrounds to their own. Privately-educated doctors and academics on the interview panel could be more likely to recruit independent school applicants.
“You are more likely to have a rapport with someone with shared experiences and values,” said Mr Lewis. “One of the ways the MMI is positive is that it limits the extent to which that happens because you are seeing seven or eight assessors.”
A decade ago, 55 per cent of St George’s intake was from state schools. The figure is now about 80 per cent. “The MMI is about maintaining that success,” Mr Lewis said.
The Royal Veterinary College, which hopes to increase its proportion of state school entrants from its current 80 per cent to 88 per cent by 2016/17, has introduced MMI for the first time this year.
The technique is set to expand further. Last year, universities, including Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Queen Mary, in London, and Sheffield, visited Cardiff University to investigate the use of MMI.
Chris Ramsey, the head of King’s School, in Chester, and co-chair of the Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference universities committee, said: “Good levels of articulacy should be developed at all good schools. They should not be the preserve of the independent sector and if they are, it perhaps says something about shortcomings elsewhere.
“The main reason why independent school pupils are disproportionately represented on medicine degrees is that pupils in our schools are more likely to study the science and maths subjects that medical schools require.”
HOW WOULD YOU DO IN THE NEW INTERVIEWS?
* An actor plays the role of your elderly neighbour. You have just accidentally run over your neighbour’s cat whilst reversing your car. You have 5 minutes to break the bad news to her.
This role-play tests insight, integrity, communication skills and empathy.
* You given details of 15 individuals, including their age, sex and occupation. A nuclear attack is imminent and you are only allowed to save 5 of them from destruction. Which ones and why?
A prioritisation exercise. The emphasis is on problem solving and rational thinking.
* Without using your hands, explain how to tie shoe laces.
Tests verbal communication skills, the ability to break down the task into a series of small steps and the interviews ability to check that the interlocutor is understanding what they are saying.