Veterinary Medicine

This course will equip you with the scientific knowledge and clinical skills to become a veterinary surgeon as well as expertise in all other aspects of veterinary medicine.

Why study veterinary medicine?
You have an enquiring mind, enjoy biology, and you want to work with animals. You may have been inspired by someone you know, or you may have become aware of the major animal health problems that veterinarians are asked to solve. Whatever your motivation, you have decided that you must become a veterinary surgeon.

Why veterinary medicine at Cambridge?
The University of Cambridge offers a unique opportunity to study the scientific basis of veterinary medicine in detail, taught by some of the world leaders in their fields in state-of-the-art facilities. This fundamental knowledge base will provide you with the necessary building blocks to develop and excel in your specialist field for the rest of your professional life. Cambridge also provides a unique intellectual and social environment in which to study to the highest level.

The opportunities for employment within veterinary science are very diverse. Many of you will want to go into private practice, which is becoming increasingly specialised. However, over a quarter of all veterinary surgeons are employed in other walks of life, including universities, research establishments, pharmaceutical companies and government service. The Cambridge course provides excellent hands-on clinical teaching, which will equip you with the clinical skills you require to become a private practitioner, and at the same time will give you the scientific understanding that you might need to go into any other area of veterinary medicine, and to understand and respond to the rapid progress being made in veterinary science.

The course at Cambridge lasts six years, but provides you with two degrees. During the first two years you will study the main biological sciences that underpin the practice of veterinary medicine. These subjects are taught in the University’s science departments by world leaders in their fields. In the third year, you will study in detail a subject chosen from a wide range of possibilities, and this will lead to the award of a BA degree. In the final three years, you will begin to learn how to translate your superb education in the biosciences into practical effect, as you receive your clinical instruction leading to the VetMB degree. This degree allows you to become a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (MRCVS), which is the professional qualification required to enter practice.

The Cambridge course has as a major strength the extensive use of practical teaching. Cambridge was the first veterinary school to introduce a hands-on lecture-free final year, in which students take full responsibility for cases under the watchful eye of the senior clinicians. Small group teaching with the attendant paying close interest to your progress is central to our philosophy of producing veterinary graduates who are second to none.

The facilities at Cambridge veterinary school are excellent. A heavy investment and building programme has provided modern facilities in the Queen’s Veterinary School Hospital, such as custom-built wards for cats and dogs, a new five-theatre small animal surgical suite, a fully-equipped intensive care unit, an equine diagnostic unit with an MRI machine capable of imaging standing horses, an equine surgical suite, new farm animal facilities, and a superb post-mortem unit. We also have a cancer therapy unit with the only linear accelerator in the country currently used for delivering radiotherapy to animals with cancer.

Approximately 3,000 new cases are referred to Cambridge each year, and around 200 consultations per week are carried out, mainly by final year students, emphasising the hands-on and ‘small-group’ nature of our course. This approach to learning allows you to develop your clinical and problem-solving skills and client communication skills in a real clinical practice environment. The Farm Animal Service runs a busy first-opinion practice with over 1,000 farm visits per year, and the equine team have also recently started a successful first-opinion practice.

Cambridge Veterinary School has an international reputation as a centre of excellence in many clinical fields, but it is also performing world-class veterinary research in outstanding research facilities. This combination allows our students to study in an environment populated by some of the best clinicians as well as some of the best researchers in the international arena.

Cambridge offers an excellent education in veterinary science and clinical veterinary medicine that results in graduates and veterinary surgeons of the highest calibre.

Admission requirements
Veterinary students must meet the appropriate pre-medical requirements. Applicants in any doubt about acceptable combinations of subjects should seek advice from the Admissions Tutor of the College to which they intend to apply, as early as possible. All applicants for Veterinary Medicine must enter for the BMAT test by 30 September.

All admissions for the Veterinary Medicine Tripos are handled in the usual way by the individual Cambridge Colleges – so please do not apply directly to the Veterinary School.

Work experience
Although work experience is not a requirement for applicants, some is useful. However, successful applicants do not necessarily have extensive work experience and we stress that other forms of extra-curricular activity can be beneficial.

After starting your course, but before moving on to the clinical course, you must complete your Pre-clinical Extramural Studies (formerly Farm Practice). This involves 12 weeks’ work experience during the vacations. Work experience carried out before starting the course cannot be counted.

During the clinical years you must complete 26 weeks of Clinical Extramural Study (formerly Seeing Practice). This involves varied practical experience with veterinary surgeons during vacations.

Professional qualification
While the University is responsible for the teaching and examination of the courses leading to the degrees of BA and VetMB, their content and standards are scrutinised by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and must also conform to the Veterinary Directives of the European Union. Veterinary students who achieve the standards laid down by the University are admitted to membership of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, whose standards are embodied in the pre-medical requirements, Second VetMB Examination and the Final Veterinary Examination Parts I, II and III.

Careers and research
Many of our graduates have gone on to prestigious posts in the profession and some have become leaders of research and industry. There are considerable opportunities for you to enter general practice in the UK and EU, and to obtain postgraduate specialist qualifications under the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons’ specialist certificate and diploma examinations. Career opportunities are also available with the government agencies, the animal charities (RSPCA, PDSA, etc), in many pet food and drug companies, and in academic posts. There are also opportunities for research in universities, research council institutes and private companies.