Dr. Stuart Reid

Royal Veterinary College photo

Dr. Stuart Reid has been principal of the Royal Veterinary College since 2011 and recently committed to stay until fall 2028.

The principal of the Royal Veterinary College will not lead the main veterinary education association in the United States as planned amid a deepening accreditation crisis at the prestigious British school that has compelled him to stay there for an extra three years.

The RVC is on the brink of losing its accreditation in the United States and Canada because its students who elect to take a key exam required to practice in North America keep falling short of a minimum pass rate.

A loss of accreditation from the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education (AVMA COE) would be especially harmful for the many RVC students who hail from the U.S. or Canada since it would make it substantially more difficult for them to become licensed to practice veterinary medicine in their home countries. For the RVC, it would disrupt a significant source of tuition revenue and could dent its reputation as one of the best veterinary schools in the world.

The RVC offers a five-year undergraduate program (veterinary medicine in the U.K. is studied at the undergraduate level) and a four-year postgraduate program that often draws international students. Tuition for international students in the 2024-25 academic year was £46,840 (US$61,712). Out-of-pocket tuition for U.K. students is capped at £9,535 (US$12,563), owing to government subsidies.

Third-year North American students at the RVC have started an online petition, now with 573 signatures, demanding assurance that they will not be disadvantaged by the school's accreditation challenges. The students also want greater transparency from the RVC and the AVMA COE, more advocacy from RVC leadership and more inclusion in the decision-making process.

The RVC announced last year that its principal, Dr. Stuart Reid, would leave this August to become CEO of the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC). In an announcement this month, the RVC indicated a reversal, saying Reid will stay through to autumn 2028.

In the RVC press release, Reid was quoted saying that he was guided by "recognizing a changing international landscape, my personal circumstances and the challenges facing higher education and the veterinary profession."

A spokesperson for the RVC told the VIN News Service that his decision was based partly on the school's North American accreditation issues. "We are actively working to resolve the situation relating to our current accreditation status and will continue to engage fully with our student body with updated information as it becomes available," the spokesperson said.

Reid's decision comes at an especially turbulent time for the U.S. higher education sector, which is facing government funding cuts under the Trump administration.

The AAVMC declined to comment on the situation, including on how it will handle the opening for a CEO. The organization announced in October that it had hired Reid as its incoming CEO following the departure of Dr. Andrew T. Maccabe in June. The AAVMC's operations head, Dorothy Gray, has been serving as interim CEO.

Reid is an alumnus of the University of Glasgow's School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, where he previously served as dean before moving to the RVC in 2011.

'Professionally displaced'

A substantial portion of the RVC's students are North American. Among the 291 students who graduated in 2024, for example, 69, or 24%, were from the U.S. and Canada, according to the RVC.

For a school to maintain its North American accreditation, at least 80% of the students each year who take the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination (NAVLE) must pass. If they fall short for two consecutive years, the school is placed on "probationary accreditation." If they fall short for four, it is placed on "terminal accreditation," according to COE policies and procedures.

The RVC has missed the minimum pass rate for three consecutive years — coming in at 71%, 63% and 60% during the 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 testing periods, respectively. The school recently wrote a letter to prospective North American students alerting them that it "must" regain full accreditation by 2026.

The school noted in the letter that its accreditation by other bodies, such as the European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education and the U.K.'s Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, is unaffected.

Graduates of non-COE-accredited foreign schools wishing to practice in North America have two options. One is applying for the Educational Commission for Foreign Veterinary Graduates (ECFVG) certification program, which has four stages that include knowledge and hands-on clinical skills assessments. Applicants have expressed concerns that a backlog of takers for the clinical skills assessment component of the ECFVG has left them in an extended limbo.

The second option is the Program for the Assessment of Veterinary Education Equivalence, through which participants must spend a year having their clinical experience evaluated at a COE-accredited school.

In the letter attached to their petition, the third-year North American students said transferring to another AVMA-accredited school isn't a viable option because it would mean having to undergo (and pay for) an additional year of study. If forced to stay abroad to find work, the letter says, they would have to secure a work-sponsored visa in the United Kingdom or another country, something they maintain is far from guaranteed.

"This situation could leave us professionally displaced, with no clear path forward unless we pursue an alternative [North American] accreditation pathway," the letter states. "These alternative routes often involve years-long waitlists, significant out-of-pocket costs, and the added burden of lost income from the delay in starting our careers. For many of us, that means missing out on an entire year's salary immediately after graduation — on top of the emotional and financial stress we're already carrying."

The students also question why the AVMA COE apparently has made what the students maintain is "the unprecedented decision" to not grant the RVC extra time to regain full accreditation through a "terminal year."

"In previous cases involving U.S. veterinary schools, a terminal year has always been granted — ensuring that the cohort already enrolled during a status change could complete their education and still qualify for North American licensure. This pathway protects students from retroactive penalties and honors the expectations they had upon enrollment."

The AVMA COE typically doesn't comment on the accreditation status of individual schools and did not answer questions asked by VIN News.

VIN News communicated with a third-year student, a second-year student, a prospective student, an alumnus and another person associated with the school. All were reluctant to be identified by name, citing fear of reprisals from the school during an already stressful time.

The third-year student said the RVC was their "dream school," with "wonderful clinical skills teaching."

"Deciding on going to school in another country was an exciting adventure that I took on knowing that one day I would be able to work back in the States and be close to family," the student said. "For me, I am beyond worried for my future, for my funds and for my ability to find a job or complete my specialty residency in the States."

The RVC hasn't stated why it believes it keeps falling short on the NAVLE. However, the sources who spoke to VIN News suggested that non-North American students who take the exam may be less motivated to pass than their North American classmates because they have an option of practicing in their home country even if they fail. VIN News is not privy to any data indicating whether this is the case.

Students and the alumnus also muse that some questions in the NAVLE might be alien to non-North American students because curriculums vary among different countries.