UCLan launches pathway courses for all students

The UK’s newest vet school wants to encourage students from more diverse backgrounds as it launches two new foundation courses as part of plans to help produce more resilient vets.

The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) is still taking applications for its new foundation programmes, which seek to take students from a much broader pool of applicants than would typically be accepted on to a veterinary science course.

UCLan’s two courses – a one-year bioveterinary sciences foundation course and a two-year bioveterinary sciences accelerated BSc programme – have been designed to act as a pathway into the full BVMS programme.

‘Multiple pathways’

Heather Bacon, senior lecturer and curriculum lead at the new vet school, said the foundation courses were intended to benefit students who do not have as strong an academic background as has traditionally been the case for acceptance on to veterinary degree courses, or who don’t have the more traditional entry requirements.

Dr Bacon said: “There will be multiple pathways into the veterinary programme and into allied veterinary professional health programmes. The goal of this is around widening participation and widening access to veterinary medicine.

“The foundation course leads into the bioveterinary sciences degree programme and the first year of that leads into the BVMS programme.

“Veterinary medicine is one of those subject areas that recruits the least students from lower socio-economic groups or children who have free school meals, for example. Applicants with those kind of markers of socio-economic status are much less likely to enter the profession than students from more affluent backgrounds.

“UCLan, as a university, has a very strong ethos and lots of experience in widening participation, so this is a really exciting opportunity for us to marry two areas of expertise and hopefully promote more diversity within the veterinary profession.”

Dr Bacon elaborated how the new course would accept a number of qualifications – not just A-levels, but also BTECs and access courses, so long as it reaches more than 80 UCAS points.

She added: “What we are looking at is different ways of recognising that 17 and 18 years old is really young for some of those students to be making decisions around their career goals, and recognising that just because you don’t perform or meet your potential at school – in terms of academic performance – doesn’t necessarily mean that you aren’t academically capable.

“There are lots of different reasons why students might not obtain their full academic potential when they are at school.

“So, what we are trying to do is offer a whole suite of different pathways that have different entry requirements, meaning that students can sort of transition through those different programmes to the veterinary profession.”

The two courses received full validation prior to Christmas 2021, but have already hit the target amount of applications the school had hoped for – with applications still coming in and being considered prior to the courses’ September launch.

Addressing resilience

Dr Bacon also said the university intends to work with students in developing ways of coping with stress and burnout to combat the industry’s ongoing retention crisis. She added: “Resilience is one of those words that’s thrown around all the time now in the vet profession.

“It’s a difficult characteristic because to some extent it’s related to personality and personal development. It’s also something that can be supported and you can develop skills in resilience as well, and that is absolutely something we are looking to address.

“I think by recruiting from a more diverse pool of students, we are hopefully going to get greater variation in life experiences, as well as attributes and characteristics that will enable us to be able to select students who are able to manage those challenges a bit better.

“Obviously, putting in good student support is vital throughout the curriculum, and we have been having discussions with Vetlife around that to make sure we have that embedded early.

“What we are looking to do here is aim to co-create a kind of educational experience with our students so they take responsibility for their own learning, so they become a bit more comfortable with uncertainty, are engaged with decision-making and take responsibility for their own educational progress from quite an early stage.”

Potential students who are interested in joining either course prior to launch are still able to apply despite the UCAS closing date for applications passing on 26 January.

Applicants are encouraged to reach out through UCLan’s university website or admissions team. The full undergraduate degree in veterinary science will be launched in September 2023 following another application period.