Veterinary Medicine & Surgery

The BVMS programme is based on integration of clinical and science subject areas and has a spiral course structure, meaning that you will revisit topics as you progress through the programme, each time with increasing clinical focus. In conjunction, there is a vertical theme of professional and clinical skills development to help you acquire the personal qualities and skills you will need in professional environments.

The programme is delivered over five years and is divided into three phases.

In the first two years of the programme you will acquire fundamental knowledge and develop the skills and attitudes on which the following years of your training are based. During this initial phase, you will relate the anatomy and physiology of the body systems to health and disease in domestic animals, as well as looking at the underlying cellular process involved. You will gain an insight into common husbandry practice and animal breeding and how these impact on the animals we care for. Your professional training starts at the beginning of year 1 as you begin classes in fundamental animal-handling techniques, learn skills such as suturing, and develop your communication skills, culminating in the art of history taking and clinical examination.

At the end of the foundation phase you will have a sound working knowledge of healthy domestic animals, with an introduction to the mechanisms of disease, and you will have developed the fundamental personal skills you will require as you move towards learning based more in professional environments.

The aim of the clinical phase is to build on the foundation phase to provide a broad training in key areas of veterinary professional practice, with a focus on common and important problems and presentations encountered in veterinary work. Realistic scenarios and cases form the basis for integrating clinical and scientific perspectives of veterinary practice. The approach will emphasise the role of clinical reasoning and planning, as well as continuing to develop skills and attitudes required to work in the clinical environment and to take a greater responsibility for your learning in the subsequent professional phase of the programme.

At the end of the clinical phase you will be prepared for entering the professional phase, where your professional development will be supported in professional and clinical environments in the final part of your development to being a veterinary professional.

In your final year there are no lectures and the primary emphasis is on small-group involvement in clinical activity, covering the common species of domestic animals. During this time you will be involved in all aspects of work in our busy hospitals and you will also gain first-hand experience in practices linked to the veterinary school. Though this year of the programme is structured so that you will receive clinical experience in core clinical areas, there is also the opportunity to focus on personal interests or explore the breadth of opportunities in the veterinary profession by choosing two ‘selective’ experiences. Selectives may be used to gain experience in niche veterinary activities (such as aquaculture) or to gain in-depth clinical experience related to core subjects.

In common with all veterinary students in the UK you will be required to undertake an additional 38 weeks of extra-mural studies (EMS) during your vacation time. The first period of 12 weeks is dedicated to gaining further experience of the management and handling of domestic animals. After this initial period is completed you start the clinical period of 26 weeks, which can be used to gain experience in veterinary professional environments. Satisfactory completion of EMS is a requirement for graduation.

The intercalated degree programme represents an opportunity for BVMS students following their second or third year to take either one or two years out of the BVMS programme and study for an additional degree programme (both at Bachelors: BSc, BSc Vet Sci (Hons); and Masters levels: MSc, MRes or MVPH); after which you then re-enter the BVMS programme

Study abroad opportunities are available in all years through participation in compulsory extra-mural studies (see special features). There are also opportunities to study abroad as an integral part of the BVMS programme in year 5.

We have approved status from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), which enables you to have the option of practising in the USA or Canada following graduation, without the need for sitting lengthy and costly clinical proficiency examinations.