Veterinary education is the tertiary education of veterinarians. To become a veterinarian, one must first complete a degree in veterinary medicine Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM, V.M.D., BVS, BVSc, BVMS, BVM etc.).
In the United States and Canada, almost all veterinary medical degrees are first entry degrees, and require several years of previous study at the university level. Many veterinary schools outside North America use the title "Faculty of Veterinary Science" instead of "College of Veterinary Medicine" or "School of Veterinary Medicine", and some veterinary schools in China, Japan and South Korea (such as the DVM degree-awarding Department of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry at Guangxi University in China and the Department of Veterinary Medicine at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology use the term "Department". [1] ) Veterinary schools are distinct from departments of animal science offering a pre-veterinary curriculum, teaching the biomedical sciences (and awarding a Bachelor of Science degree or the equivalent), and providing graduate veterinary education in disciplines such as microbiology, virology, and molecular biology.
Aspiring veterinarians can earn several types of degrees, differing by country and involving undergraduate or graduate education. [1] In the United States, schools award the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree (DVM). [2] This degree is also awarded in Bangladesh, Canada, Ethiopia, Hungary, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Tobago and Trinidad. [1] Other countries offer a degree equivalent to the North American DVM. In the United Kingdom and countries which have adopted the undergraduate system of higher education, a bachelor's degree is equivalent to a DVM (after five or six years of study).[ citation needed ] In the US, a four-year DVM degree such as Bachelor of Veterinary Science, Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine or Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery follows a four-year undergraduate degree (eight years of study after high school).[ citation needed ] In Ireland, the Veterinary Medicine Programme at the University College Dublin awards the Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (MVB). [3] At the University of Edinburgh, the degree is BVM&S (Bachelors of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, and the University of Glasgow, the degree awarded is the Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine & Surgery (BVMS). [4] Some veterinary schools offer a degree enabling the recipient to practice veterinary medicine in their home country but does not permit the individual to take a licensing examination abroad; for example, veterinary schools in Afghanistan offer only the Bachelor of Science (BS) degree. [5] Although Ethiopia awards a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree, it is not recognized in the US or Western Europe. [6]
Nearly every country requires an individual with a veterinary degree to be licensed before practicing. Most countries require a non-national with a veterinary degree to pass a separate licensure exam for foreign graduates before practicing. In the US, the Educational Commission for Foreign Veterinary Graduates (ECFVG) administers a four-step examination recognized by all American state and territorial veterinary licensing boards, the US federal government, and the District of Columbia. [7] The European Parliament issued a September 30, 2005 directive providing EU-wide standards for veterinary medical education and the recognition of veterinary degrees from member states. [8]
Licensure requirements are diverse. In South Africa, the Veterinary and Para-Veterinary Professions Act, Act 19 of 1982 provides for automatic licensure if an individual has graduated from one of several universities in South Africa, New Zealand, or the United Kingdom (including the University of Pretoria, Massey University, University of Bristol, University of Cambridge, University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, University of Liverpool, and the University of London as of 2008) or has passed the licensure examination administered by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. All others must pass an examination and register with the South African Veterinary Council. [9] India has a similar system, in which degrees awarded by certain schools are "deemed" to qualify an individual to practice veterinary medicine, but has forgone an exam in favor of state tribunals which investigate credentials and control a registry of licensed practitioners. [10]
All developed countries and most newly industrialized and developing countries accredit veterinary schools. [11] Those in the US are accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Council on Education (COE) [12] [13] The EU is developing an accreditation standard, with accreditation usually provided by the European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education (EAEVE) as of 2008. [14] [15] [16]
Accreditation systems vary widely in developing nations. In Mexico El Consejo Nacional de Educación de la Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia (CONEVET) accredits veterinary medical colleges, although few schools are accredited. [17] The accreditation system is poor (or nonexistent) in other developing nations; for example, Ethiopia has focused on building veterinary medical colleges rather than accrediting existing schools. [6]
Admissions practices, requirements and difficulty vary widely among veterinary schools and by country. Admission is generally competitive, due to the small number of places available. [18] Most AVMA-accredited institutions in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States share an online application system, known as the Veterinary Medical College Application Service (VMCAS). [18] Many VMCAS colleges also have additional, individualized application requirements, and admissions standards are high. [18] [19]
Admissions standards in Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa also vary widely, with many veterinary schools limiting admission to students from their area, state or country. Twenty-five of the 28 veterinary schools in the US are public universities and, by law, may reserve few places for out-of-state residents. [18] Other countries have similar schemes. In India, federal law requires each veterinary college to reserve 15 percent of its places for students from other parts of India. The Veterinary Council of India (a body of the federal government) conducts the All India Common Entrance Examination, and the top scorers are placed throughout the country. [20]
Veterinary school curricula are not standardized, with programs lasting from three to six years. In the United States and Canada the program is generally four years long, usually after a four-year pre-vet undergraduate degree). For the first three years, students learn anatomy, physiology, histology, neuroanatomy, pharmacology, immunology, bacteriology, virology, pathology, parasitology, toxicology, herd health (also called population health), nutrition, radiography, and epidemiology. During the third year, students learn anesthesiology, diagnostics, surgery, ophthalmology, orthopedics, and dentistry. For the fourth year, often 12 months long instead of nine, students care for a wide range of animals. [21] Clinical education is a focus of most veterinary school curricula worldwide. In 2005, for the first time in its 104-year-history, the Veterinary Medicine Programme at University College Dublin instituted a lecture-free final year focusing on clinical training. [22] The Institute of Veterinary Pathology at the University of Zurich has implemented a curriculum for teaching pathology with an extensive clinical component. [23] Veterinary schools in Israel, [24] Spain, [25] the Czech Republic, [26] and Slovakia [27] also emphasize clinical training.
However, clinical training is limited in some schools and countries; In Sri Lanka, until recently there were few companion animals; veterinary education focused on herd health, with little attention to clinical skills. [28] In Ethiopia few schools have clinical training facilities, and the government has prioritized opening more schools over improving existing colleges. [6]
Most veterinary schools do not allow students to engage in "species specialization", and students must be able to treat a broad range of species. [29] However, most veterinary programs allow students to take elective courses which will enable them to specialize at graduation. Veterinary schools in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States engage in "tracking", and students are asked which branch of veterinary medicine they intend to practice (such as companion animal, bovine, equine, food supply, avian, wildlife, and public health). [30] Although tracking is controversial, about 60 percent of US and Canadian veterinary schools engage in full or partial tracking of students and there are calls for full tracking by some North American veterinary medical education organizations. [31] [32] It is argued that enhanced tracking should be linked to "limited licensure" of veterinarians to practice only in the species (or specialty) in which they were trained. [31] [33] Although very few veterinary schools require students to enroll in an internship or residency upon graduation, internships and residencies are often required for veterinarians seeking board certification in Canada, Europe and the US. [34]
Lectures and rote learning are two of the most common teaching methods in veterinary education. [35] To a lesser degree, outcome-based education, [36] discovery learning, and inquiry-based learning are also used. [37] Problem-based learning has been adopted in most veterinary schools in developed countries, particularly Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, and Western Europe. [38]
In the last years, the concept of competency-based teaching has been given a lot of attention and several universities teaching veterinary medicine are now adapting their curricula. [39] [40] Furthermore, the importance of institutionalized systematic teacher feedback has been recognized and tools such as clinical encounter cards are being implemented in clinical veterinary education. [41]
A veterinarian (vet) is a medical professional who practices veterinary medicine. They manage a wide range of health conditions and injuries in non-human animals. Along with this, veterinarians also play a role in animal reproduction, health management, conservation, husbandry and breeding and preventive medicine like nutrition, vaccination and parasitic control as well as biosecurity and zoonotic disease surveillance and prevention.
The Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) is the oldest veterinary school in Canada. It is located on the campus of the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario. The OVC is one of five veterinary schools that offer the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, DVM program in Canada. The program is highly competitive and only admits a select number of applicants each year. The OVC was ranked 1st in Canada and 5th in the world for veterinary medicine by the QS World University Rankings 2020.
The New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University is a college of veterinary medicine at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. It was founded in 1894. It is the first statutory college of the State University of New York (SUNY) system.
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), founded in 1863, is a not-for-profit association representing more than 99,500 veterinarians in the US.
St. George's University is a private medical school and international university in Grenada, West Indies, offering degrees in medicine, veterinary medicine, public health, the health sciences, nursing, arts and sciences, and business. St. George's University was established by an act of Grenada's parliament on July 23, 1976. Classes in the School of Medicine began January 17, 1977. In 1993, the university added graduate and undergraduate programs. In 1996, it was granted a charter for the School of Arts and Sciences and a Graduate Studies Program. In 1997, undergraduate courses in international business, life sciences, medical sciences, pre-medical and pre-veterinary medicine were added. The School of Veterinary Medicine was established in 1999, as was the university's Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.
The Virginia–Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine is a state-supported college of two states, Virginia and Maryland, filling the need for veterinary medicine education in both states. Students from both states are considered "in-state" students for admissions purposes.
The Texas A&M University School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences is the veterinary school of Texas A&M University, a public research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1916 and is one of only 31 colleges or schools of veterinary medicine in the United States and Canada. It is consistently ranked as one of the top 5 veterinary schools in the country, according to U.S. News. The school offers an undergraduate program in Biomedical Sciences, a professional Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program, and numerous graduate programs relating to veterinary medicine and epidemiology.
A veterinary specialist is a veterinarian who specializes in a clinical field of veterinary medicine.
St. Matthew's University (SMU) is a private for-profit offshore medical school located in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. SMU has a School of Medicine and a School of Veterinary Medicine, which confer M.D. and D.V.M. degrees, respectively. St. Matthew's University is owned by R3 Education, Inc.
The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine is a college within the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia, United States and is a top 10 ranked veterinary school.
The Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) is a veterinary college in the United States that was founded in 1910 and awards about 100 Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degrees each year. It is the only veterinary college in Michigan. It is composed of the departments of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Small Animal Clinical Sciences, Microbiology, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Physiology, and Pathobiology and Diagnostic Investigation. It offers a four-year program leading to the DVM as well as graduate study leading to the Master of Science (MS) and PhD, and recently a joint program in veterinary medicine and public health (DVM/MPH), affiliated with University of Minnesota's School of Public Health. It also runs an accredited veterinary technology program, the equivalent of a human nursing program, that offers options for a Bachelor of Science degree or a certificate of completion. The college was the setting for the show Vet School Confidential, which originally aired on Animal Planet in 2001.
The Student American Veterinary Medical Association (SAVMA) is a national association of student chapters of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) at schools and colleges of veterinary medicine in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. SAVMA acts as a single national voice for veterinary students in accordance with the policies and goals of the AVMA, coordinates AVMA student chapter activities, facilitates the exchange of information, and represents the interests of student veterinarians within AVMA, the veterinary profession and in the political and legislative arenas nationally.
Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine is a medical degree conferred by the 38 osteopathic medical schools in the United States. DO and Doctor of Medicine (MD) degrees are equivalent: a DO graduate may become licensed as a physician or surgeon and thus have full medical and surgical practicing rights in all 50 US states. As of 2021, there were 168,701 osteopathic physicians and medical students in DO programs across the United States. Osteopathic medicine emerged historically from osteopathy, but has become a distinct profession.
The Bachelor of Veterinary Science, "Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine" (BVetMed), or "Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery" is a degree for studies in veterinary medicine in the United Kingdom, Australia, and several other countries outside the United States and Canada. These degrees qualify one to practice as a veterinarian in the US if the degree is conferred from an American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) accredited school and the candidate passes the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination (NAVLE), just as any other US and Canada graduate. They are equivalent to DVM/VMD degrees; the main equalizer being licensure in the US. On 5 March 2015, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) Council made the decision to allow UK veterinarians to use the courtesy title "doctor", to align with international practices. The RCVS president said of the change: “Whether one regards the decision as correcting a historical anomaly or simply providing greater clarity at home and abroad, there is no doubt that the issue has generated huge interest".
Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine (RUSVM), founded in 1982, is a university offering the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree. As of 2014, RUSVM began offering Master of Science and PhD degrees in public health, global animal health, conservation medicine, and other research areas supported by the school. The school is located in St. Kitts. Administrative offices are located in Downers Grove, IL. RUSVM is accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education.
A paraveterinary worker is a professional of veterinary medicine who performs procedures autonomously or semi-autonomously, as part of a veterinary assistance system. The job role varies throughout the world, and common titles include veterinary nurse, veterinary technician, and veterinary assistant, and variants with the prefix of "animal health".
Veterinary medicine in the United States is the performance of veterinary medicine in the United States, normally performed by licensed professionals, and subject to provisions of statute law which vary by state. Veterinary medicine is normally led by veterinary physicians, termed veterinarians or vets, but also by paraveterinary workers, such as veterinary technicians, and veterinary assistants. This can be augmented by other paraprofessionals with specific specialties, such as animal physiotherapy or dentistry, and species-relevant roles such as farriers.
The Western University College of Veterinary Medicine is a non-profit, private, veterinary medical school at Western University of Health Sciences located in Pomona, in the US state of California. The college consists of about 400 veterinary medical students, and confers the degree Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. The college was established in 1998 as the first veterinary school to open in the country in 20 years. The college is fully accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association.
The Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) represents colleges and schools of veterinary medicine in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It advocates for issues related to veterinary medical education, oversees the accreditation process for veterinary medical schools and colleges along with the American Veterinary Medical Association, and manages the Veterinary Medical College Application Service.
The American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia (ACVAA) is one of 22 veterinary specialist organizations recognized by the American Veterinary Medical Association.