MAPAS Motivation and Community Connection
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MAPAS Motivation and Community Connection
The University of Auckland's MAPAS (Māori and Pacific Admission Scheme) asks applicants to articulate their connection to community and how it drives their motivation for medicine. How would you describe your own motivation, and why is community connection valued in a doctor?
What does whakapapa mean as a concept, and how might it shape a doctor's understanding of a patient's health story?
How does community accountability differ from individual professional accountability?
If you were not selected for MAPAS, how would you still bring your values to a medical career?
Speak it out loud and we'll type it for you (free), or type your own notes — then mark yourself below.
- Structure: why medicine → concrete evidence → honest reflection.
- Be specific about what medicine uniquely offers — avoid "I want to help people".
What strong answers doReveal the benchmark
Hidden so they don't bias your answer. Score yourself first, then reveal them to compare.
- Be specific and authentic: name the community you are connected to, describe a concrete experience and link it to the kind of doctor you want to be. Vague answers such as 'I want to help people' will not distinguish you; MAPAS is looking for genuine community rootedness, not the most impressive CV.
- Explain whakapapa as genealogy in the broad sense, the layered relationships connecting people to each other, to ancestors and to land, and show how it helps a doctor understand reluctance to discuss certain topics, why whānau involvement is not optional, and why a health story may begin generations before the presenting complaint.
- Distinguish professional accountability, which runs upward to a regulator and a code, from community accountability, which runs to the people you come from and is harder to walk away from. If asked about not being selected, be honest that the values are not conferred by a scheme.
Mark yourself
Score each skill against the rubric, then add a line of evidence. Scale:
Self-Awareness
0/3Articulates a genuine, community-grounded motivation
Cultural Safety
0/3Demonstrates understanding of whakapapa and its clinical relevance
Reflection
0/3Links personal history to professional aspiration concretely
Communication
0/3Speaks with authenticity rather than rehearsed rhetoric