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- Code of Professional Conduct for Veterinary Surgeons
- Code of Professional Conduct for Veterinary Nurses
- Contact the Advice Team
- XL Bully dog ban
- 'Under care' - new guidance
- Advice on Schedule 3
- Controlled Drugs Guidance – A to Z
- Dealing with Difficult Situations webinar recordings
- FAQs – Common medicines pitfalls
- FAQs – Routine veterinary practice and clinical veterinary research
- GDPR – RCVS information and Q&As
Do I have to take the statutory membership examination if I want to work as a veterinary surgeon in the UK?
To work as a vet in the UK, you must be registered with the RCVS. To discover if your veterinary degree is recognised by the RCVS, please see the registration application page for veterinary surgeons.
If the university that awarded your primary veterinary degree is not listed, then you will need to pass the Statutory Membership Examination before you can register.
Related FAQs
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Once you submit a completed declaration of intention to sit you will be eligible to ‘see practice’ in accordance with the provisions laid out in the Veterinary Surgeons Act.
This affords you the opportunity to gain practical, clinical experience, as part of your preparation for the examination and is strongly recommended. Further information about the regulations around ‘seeing practice’ can be found in the examination guidance and on the website.
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The examination consists of two components: a written examination and a practical examination (Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).
The written component consists of best-of-5 multiple-choice questions which will assess your clinical knowledge and will include an open-book paper assessing your familiarity with the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct.
The OSCE will assess a range of practical skills. For more information on the format, please refer to section 6 of the guidance document.
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At present there is one exam per year. The written component is normally held in Spring and is run remotely, allowing candidates to take the examination securely using their own computer from a suitable location of their choosing.
The OSCE is held at Harper Adams University in Autumn.
Specific dates are provided to candidates once they are available.
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If you can demonstrate that you have been granted humanitarian protection by the British Home Office then you may be entitled to financial support, including support with examination fees. Please contact the examinations manager at [email protected] if you would like to apply for this assistance.