Aim. Analysis of the quality of candidates’ preparation for a Bachelor’s degree programme in Midwifery at Medical University of Warsaw. Material and methods. A group of 3561 candidates who took part in the admission procedure for a full-time programme in Midwifery between 2007–2015 (women constituted 98% of the total, mean age of 19.7 ± 1.93). Recruitment data comprised information on matriculation examination results for three criteria: Polish language, foreign language, and a chosen subject. Methods of analysis: descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis test with calculated eta-squared (η2) effect, Kendall’s coefficient. Results. The number of candidates amounted to 2.26 compared to the number of places offered at the Faculty during the period considered. Biology (46.5%), mathematics (33.0%), and chemistry (13.5%) constituted the most often selected candidates’ chosen subjects. Differences in scores in the consecutive years: foreign language (η2 = 0.008), Polish language (η2 = 0.056), and chosen subject (η2 = 0.085); all criteria demonstrated a statistically significant difference (Kruskal-Wallis test, p < 0.001). The 2015 admission presented the lowest score compliance with respect to the three criteria whereas the 2007 admission presented the highest one. Conclusions. A large number of candidates for Midwifery, particularly in the past two years, is not accompanied by a proportionally significant number of candidates with good and very good matriculation examination results. This may result in a decrease in validity of selection of appropriate candidates for this particular major.

Key words: midwifery, educational measurement, graduate education, school admission criteria.