A changing landscape of veterinary education

External pressures

Over the last few years, major events have added further pressure on veterinary education, including the delivery of EMS. The global Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on placements, with the vast majority of EMS placements being cancelled when lockdown restrictions were in place. Although we adjusted the EMS requirement to support students during this time, it was clear from the data gathered from new graduates starting the RCVS Veterinary Graduate Development Programme (VetGDP) in 2021, and from their VetGDP Advisers, that  experiencing less EMS negatively affected graduates’ confidence and preparedness for practice. When lockdown restrictions eased, EMS placements were slow to return, which has had a ‘knock-on’ impact for some students. 

Also, when the UK left the European Union, this (and the pandemic) added further pressure on the UK veterinary workforce as fewer vets applied to register to work in the UK. Workforce shortages, combined with increased pet ownership and rising caseload for vets, has have left some clinical placement providers feeling as though they do not have the time to support a student on EMS.

Perfect storm

In parallel, student numbers in the UK are rapidly increasing. In addition to increasing cohort numbers at existing schools, a number of new schools have recently been established and are enrolling students, including the Harper and Keele Veterinary School and Aberystwyth School of Veterinary Science. There are also plans for further new vet schools at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), which are planning to take their first cohorts of students in the next few years. All of these new schools are adopting – to a greater or lesser extent – a distributed model of teaching, whereby students receive a proportion of their clinical teaching at partner practices within the community.

"It was clear from the VetGDP data that experiencing less EMS negatively affected graduates' confidence and preparedness for practice."

In addition, from 2023 our new accreditation standards for veterinary programmes will require all schools to deliver the majority of their clinical teaching in a general practice context, which will inevitably result in changes for some of the established schools.

As more practices in the UK become formalised (contractual) partners with vet schools in the delivery of the curriculum, taking students on intra-mural rotation (IMR) placements, there is a risk that this may be at the expense of offering EMS placements. Consequently, there is the potential for a ‘perfect storm’, with demand for EMS placements rapidly increasing over the next five to ten years, at a time when availability may be in decline.