Do UK vet school graduates stay in the profession?

In this blog, RCVS Research Manager Vicki Bolton reflects on a recent persistent myth in the veterinary profession and how she and her team have worked to set the record straight.

Over recent years there’s been a persistent myth that almost half of new vets leave their profession in the first five years after they graduate.

While the myth seems to have been most dispelled, we can, and have, tested the myth using data from the RCVS Register. As part of our research for the recently published RCVS Register Exit Survey report, I’ve looked at cohorts of vets from UK vet schools who joined the UK-practising category of the Register in a particular year, and observed whether they remain on the Register after five years.

The relevant charts are available to download as a PDF document. 

This chart shows that, of the UK vet school graduates who joined the UK-practising category in 2020, 89% remained in that category at the end of 2025, which is the end of the fifth year. Including those who remained on the Register in other categories (non-practising and overseas-practising), 97% remained on the Register. Only 26 individuals have definitely left the Register and therefore the UK veterinary profession, and it’s possible that some of those continue to practise, but overseas.

This approach isn’t perfect, of course. For example, this chart doesn’t tell us whether the vets graduated in the same year they joined the Register or in an earlier year. It doesn’t tell us whether the vets are working in clinical practice. It only tells us whether they are paying their fees to remain on the Register. However, even allowing for some margin of error, our data does debunk the myth.

In fact, the vast majority of UK vet school graduates remain attached to the veterinary sector five years after graduation and, if the persistent myth were true, the sustainability of the veterinary workforce would be far more dire than both the statistical and the anecdotal evidence tells us.

The RCVS Research Team conducts and commissions research, in the public interest, in support of the College’s work to inspire confidence in veterinary care. This might mean examining the challenges facing veterinary professionals; or looking at the communications problems pet owners could face when talking to their vet; or investigating the consequences of a change in regulation. If you’d like to know more about the work of the RCVS Research Team, you can email us on [email protected]