Vet school body pleads for new ‘fair’ settlement in sector tuition

The body representing UK vet schools has called for a new education funding settlement that is “fair” for both them and students alike.

The plea is contained in a new action plan from the Veterinary Schools Council (VSC) that seeks to improve equity, diversity and inclusion within the sector.

But the group declined to endorse calls from another university organisation for an increase in tuition fees, instead highlighting the need for greater financial support for students.

Officials have described the 42-page document as an “urgent and ambitious” plan for both its own work and that of the wider sector.

‘Privileged backgrounds’

The report said: “In common with other courses that have traditionally been dominated by those from privileged backgrounds, too many highly capable students still feel that studying veterinary medicine is simply not for people like them.”

The VSC has pledged to work to remove barriers to veterinary education in a range of areas, including communications on admissions, access to work experience, developing alternative pathways to vet school and clarifying the kind of adjustments that can be provided for students with disabilities.

But the report also acknowledged the potential for funding to act as a barrier for students entering vet school and the challenges vet schools face, both in delivering degree programmes and supporting students with the cost of their education.

It added: “VSC therefore hopes that Government will urgently bring forward a new funding settlement that is fair for both veterinary students and veterinary schools.”

‘Structurally unsustainable’

The report was highlighted after Universities UK (UUK) – a group that represents around 140 higher education institutions – warned that current university funding arrangements are “structurally unsustainable across all four nations” of the UK.

The warning followed analysis published by the higher education regulator, the Office for Students, in the spring, which found that up to 40% of universities were likely to be running a budget deficit this year.

It also warned that some institutions would need to make substantial changes to avoid what the body described as a “material risk of closure”.

UUK’s paper called for immediate government action to raise tuition fees, which have been frozen in England since 2017, by linking them to inflation and restore teaching grants to help meet what it sees as the “real costs” of teaching and help stabilise the sector’s finances.

Choose a path

Its president, Dame Sally Mapstone, said: “We can take the path which leads to better and stronger universities, delivering on the new government’s missions, and doing more to open up opportunities to a broader range of people, or we can let them slide into decline. We must choose the former path.”

The current VSC chairperson, Stuart Reid, warned veterinary education was “not a sustainable business” when he addressed an EFRA select committee hearing in March, because of rising costs and funding shortfalls.

Asked to comment on earlier media reports of the UUK proposals, a VSC spokesperson said the body had “long been arguing for a new funding settlement” but could offer “no specific comment” on the fee question.

Education costs

The council’s report also made no direct reference to fees, but recognised it was becoming harder for all students to meet education costs.

It added: “The reintroduction of non-repayable grants for students from low-income backgrounds, as well as the uprating of loan entitlements in line with the cost of living, would go some way to easing this situation, as would lifting the prevention on access to student finance for previous graduates studying veterinary medicine as a second degree.”