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Veterinary Medicine and Surgery at Harper and Keele Veterinary School - UCAS

Course options

Course summary

The world of veterinary medicine has always attracted some of the brightest and most able students - brought together by a desire to work with animals and a concern for animal welfare.The careers are varied across the clinical and non-clinical sector. Practising vets can focus on the small animal, equine or farm sectors where advances in animal science and technology are transforming both disease prevention and treatment. But career options in the non-clinical veterinary sector are also growing – with exciting avenues opening up in education, innovation and working collaboratively across animal and human health. A changing industry demands that the vets of tomorrow graduate with not only first rate clinical skills, but a broader set of capabilities. They need to be good communicators with a sound understanding of business. They also need to be confident and resilient first opinion practitioners – who have benefited during their training from access to a wide variety of extramural study placements in industry.These factors have combined to convince Harper Adams University and Keele University that the time is right to create a vet school that meets the challenges of today’s veterinary industry. Harper Adams has a strong pedigree in animal sciences, veterinary nursing and veterinary physiotherapy, whilst Keele has a long history in the life sciences and human medicine. Both institutions are well recognised for their strength in employability, student satisfaction and first class teaching. The unique two-centre School will provide students with the opportunity to take advantage of two institutions with a common commitment to excellence but complementary skill sets and resources. The clinical training will follow a distributed model of delivery and a range of approved third party veterinary practices have agreed to provide clinical placements. As is the norm with Veterinary Schools, the teaching week is intensive for the students, who can expect around 28 hours per week of contact time. Students also need to complete extra mural studies gaining hands on practical experience, and so the total study year ranges from 35-45 weeks a year across the five year programme. Due to the vocational nature and focus of the students, all modules have been created for the programme and are exclusive to it:

  • Extensive use is made of the farm and companion animals on site at Harper Adams as well as state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and clinical skills rooms at both Harper and Keele
  • Small group teaching facilitates the development of confidence in practical skills
  • The curriculum will incorporate case studies from early in the first year
  • In the final 2 clinical years of the programme, vets from referral centres provide keynote lectures, tutorials and practical classes, based on their current and ongoing experience in practice providing our students with real world experience and knowledge for their future careers
  • Clinical teaching takes place not only in a hospital setting with the unusual or difficult cases, but also in practices where management of the everyday case is the primary focus
Students will be equally split between home sites, with lectures simultaneously live-streamed to the other site. Students spend full days on either campus, mostly at their 'home' site, with travel days to the other site limited to the need to access specialist facilities, typically in the region of four days a month. The final year will be mostly spent on clinical rotations, with individual days or weeks back at the home site for tutorials. EMS can take place anywhere in the country, whereas final year university controlled clinical rotations will predominantly take place within easy travelling distance from either home site. A shuttle bus service is provided for Vet School students allowing them to travel free of charge and safely between the two institutions in order to access timetabled classes.

Modules

Information on the course modules can be found at https://www.harperkeelevetschool.ac.uk/study/432/veterinary-medicine-and-surgery/

Assessment method

Information on assessment methods will be available at https://www.harperkeelevetschool.ac.uk/ in due course

Qualified teacher status (QTS)

To work as a teacher at a state school in England or Wales, you will need to achieve qualified teacher status (QTS). This is offered on this course for the following level:

  • Course does not award QTS

How to apply

Application codes

Course code:
D100
Institution code:
H25
Campus name:
Harper and Keele Veterinary School
Campus code:
H

Points of entry

The following entry points are available for this course:

  • Year 1

International applicants

The Harper & Keele Veterinary School is currently unable to consider applications from students who require a Student Visa.

Entry requirements

Qualification requirements

Graduates: Those who already hold a degree will normally be required to have a minimum 2i in any honours degree plus minimum of BBB at A-level, including biology or chemistry; students with good degrees (1st or 2i) in an animal-related or bioscience discipline who do not meet the A-level requirements are welcome to apply and will be considered on a case-by-case basis alongside all other applicants.

Please click the following link to find out more about qualification requirements for this course

https://www.harperkeelevetschool.ac.uk/study/432/veterinary-medicine-and-surgery/

Additional entry requirements

Health checks

All applicants who firmly accept the course will be required to complete a confidential occupation health form so any support needs can be identified.

Interview

All applicants who pass initial screening will be required to participate in a selection event. These will take place on campus at either Harper Adams or Keele university. No offer will be made for the course without participation at one of these events.

Other

Vocational Experience: All applicants are required to complete a vocational experience form which will be available from the Harper & Keele Veterinary School website from September. This form must be submitted online by the deadline stated on the website and late forms will not be considered. ​The primary aim of gaining vocational experience prior to a vet school application is to ensure that candidates understand the varied and sometimes challenging nature of veterinary work and the commitment required to be a successful student and have a long and fulfilling career. This is best achieved by spending time with vets in practice and alongside others working with animals in a variety of settings. Far more importantly, we will expect you to be able to discuss in detail the insights you have gained during your vocational experience, and to understand the depth and roles of a vet and the work they do. This should be derived from time spent ‘seeing practice’ with vets in a clinical setting and from animal vocational experiences. Not all candidates will have equal opportunities for access to vocational experiences. We appreciate it may be difficult for every student to amass a large number of weeks of varied placements especially since this may also affect your academic studies. For suggested vocational experience please see our website. We appreciate it may be easier to gain smaller chunks of experience such as a day a week at a local vet practice and therefore do not expect your experience to be made up of week-long blocks at each placement. No weight will be afforded to those with greater time spent on placements. For successful interviewees with relatively little work experience, we may make offers conditional on gaining further specified work experience.


Student Outcomes

Operated by the Office for Students

There is no data available for this course. For further information visit the Discover Uni website.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

England £9250 Year 1
Northern Ireland £9250 Year 1
Scotland £9250 Year 1
Wales £9250 Year 1
Channel Islands £19250 Year 1
International £33000 Year 1

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .

Additional fee information

Further information relating to additional costs can be found on the following page in the Fees and Charges guide https://www.harperkeelevetschool.ac.uk/study/key-info/
Veterinary Medicine and Surgery at Harper and Keele Veterinary School - UCAS