The UK’s veterinary schools have launched a survey to help the sector to understand the costs associated with providing student extra mural studies (EMS) work placements.
They are keen to hear from farms, veterinary practices and other organisations that provide student placements.
In order to qualify as a veterinarian in the UK, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) requires students to complete 38 weeks of EMS placements over the course of their degree.
Placements are organised by individual students and the costs associated with each placement are borne by the student and the organisation hosting their placement.
While most student placements are on farms or in veterinary practices, students also undertake placements in diagnostic laboratories, with public health bodies, in meat processing plants, equine livery yards, zoos, kennels and the many other types of organisations where a veterinary career might lead them.
However, there is no data currently available on the costs incurred by these organisations in providing placements to veterinary students.
This survey – undertaken by the Veterinary Schools Council (VSC) as part of a wider study looking at the cost of placements to universities, students and placement providers – seeks to rectify this.
“As cost pressures on students and placement providers increase, it’s vital that we have a robust understanding of the costs involved with the current placement requirements,” says Professor Stuart Reid, principal of the Royal Veterinary College and Chair of the VSC.
“This will allow the sector to make more informed, benchmarked decisions for the future.”
The survey is open to all organisations that provide placements to UK veterinary students and will take around ten minutes to complete.
All responses are confidential.
The EMS costs survey is available online and will be open until 5pm on Friday 12 May 2023.
