Vet schools bid to smash cash for courses culture

University admissions leaders have appealed for vets to help them counter the “misinformation and paid activities” they fear could be influencing some prospective vet school applicants.

Senior Veterinary Schools Council (VSC) officials told Vet Times they are “increasingly concerned” about the issues and have spoken out now, ahead of next week’s application deadline for degree programmes starting in autumn 2026.

The council’s admissions committee is urging clinicians both to promote its guide to the entry process and encourage prospective students to contact schools directly with queries or concerns.

‘Help us recruit’

Its chairperson Karen Noble said: “Help us recruit the next generation of veterinary surgeons by giving them the best advice.”

Although veterinary science is still widely viewed as a popular discipline, with applications and admissions both up so far this year according to UCAS data, the current concerns are largely based on what officials regard as outdated understandings of the admissions process.

Prof Noble, who is also part of the Liverpool vet school’s admissions team, acknowledged that many vets would not have access to current information to help them advise aspiring students and would tend to “default back to what they know” if asked without intending to mislead.

‘Mythbusting’

But she maintained they still have a role in “mythbusting” by promoting the guide and encouraging students who are thinking about applying to do so. She also argued there had “never been a better time to apply” and said the ratio of applications to places was only around two to one compared to the commonly cited 10 to one ratio.

In his introduction to the current admissions guide, David Bainbridge, Prof Noble’s predecessor as admissions committee chair, also wrote: “We worry that many good candidates do not apply because they overestimate the challenges involved or, more likely, underestimate their own abilities.”

The concern about paid activities relates largely to the promotion of tutoring and coaching programmes that claim to prepare students for admissions interviews.

Exact scale

Although the exact scale of the problem is unclear, the council maintains such schemes are unnecessary for students because of the ways in which the schools’ admissions processes have themselves evolved.

Neerja Muncaster, who chairs the VSC’s EDI committee, said many of today’s procedures were “very different” from the traditional style of panel interview and schools were now more transparent about the kind of attributes they are looking for.

But she also argued the very suggestion that paying for such courses could improve students’ chances of securing a vet school place was damaging for the whole sector.

‘Annihilate image’

She said: “It’s not needed and I think it just sends the wrong message that you need to have resource and money behind you before you get to vet school.

“We need to annihilate that image because that’s not correct and it does not help our profession.

“We need their help to say, actually, veterinary is for everybody. It’s not just for the middle class who have a connection with someone at vet school, which is what the perception is from still a lot of children, especially at primary school.”