Teaching hospital

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A plan to end the University of Cambridge's veterinary program includes the closure of its teaching hospital, the Queen's Veterinary School Hospital.

The University of Cambridge is poised to become the first educational institution in the West in decades to end an established veterinary medicine program, a prospect that's sparked a sharp rebuke from its staff and students, who have pledged to do whatever they can to stop the prestigious British school from closing.

The British Veterinary Association, which represents more than 19,000 practitioners in the United Kingdom, also called for a rethink of the plan, which it described as "deeply worrying."

The University of Cambridge, founded more than 800 years ago and counting famed scientists Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking among its alumni, is one of the oldest universities in the world and widely considered among the world's best. Its veterinary school was established in 1949.

The university's School of Biological Sciences, which encompasses disciplines such as biochemistry, genetics, veterinary medicine and zoology, dropped a bombshell on Thursday when it announced that it was recommending that the university cease veterinary education once the students who begin the program in 2026 graduate in 2032.

Although the university has provided little detail to the public on the logic behind the planned closure, its decision appears rooted in financial losses. In a statement posted to its website, it said options for the school's future were weighed against its "strategic vision and plan, their implications for teaching and research, financial impact, and achievable implementation."

Closing an established veterinary program has been almost unheard of in modern times. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, scores of veterinary schools were shuttered worldwide, owing to a decline in the horse population due to the rise of the internal combustion engine and because of tighter accreditation standards.

A program at the American University of Antigua in the Caribbean, opened in 2010 and shut in 2011, appears to be the only closure in recent history, at least in the English-speaking world.

Still, there have been signs that some veterinary programs have been experiencing financial challenges. The University of Melbourne's veterinary school in 2022 stopped operating a teaching hospital, which it now leases to a corporate practice chain. A subsequent report commissioned by Australia and New Zealand's eight veterinary schools found all were under financial strain and that one was in a "precarious" position and might close.

Many new schools worldwide are being established without teaching hospitals, which are expensive to build and operate. Instead, they send students off campus for clinical training at partner practices. (Funding for veterinary schools is complex, and funding sources vary by country. Schools in Australia and the U.K., for instance, generally are more reliant on government subsidies than schools in the United States.)

The U.K. now has 11 veterinary schools plus a partnership between the University of Aberystwyth in Wales and the long-established Royal Veterinary College.

Cambridge's veterinary school is accredited in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa but not in the U.S. and Canada. It aims to enroll a relatively modest cohort of around 75 students per year, according to a 2025 guide published by the U.K.'s Veterinary Schools Council. The guide states that four of the 69 students admitted to the program in 2024 were from outside the U.K.

Veterinary medicine in the U.K. is offered as an undergraduate degree in programs that last five to six years. At Cambridge, it's a six-year program. The admissions process at Cambridge's veterinary school for the academic year commencing in October 2026 is recommended to proceed as planned, the university said. It didn't answer questions from the VIN News Service about its reasoning for the closure, how many jobs may be lost and what a closure might mean for the British veterinary profession more broadly.

A letter from Jon Simons, head of the School of Biological Sciences, sent to students on Wednesday and seen by VIN News said the veterinary school's "ongoing financial challenges" were discussed at a meeting on Dec. 4, during which several other options were explored, including "significant cost savings," a "commercial restructuring" of the school's teaching hospital and "various kinds" of external partnerships.

The discussion lasted more than three hours, Simons wrote, before the school's leadership council voted 11-0, with two abstentions, to recommend that veterinary education be ceased. "The school council concluded that there was no viable long-term solution that guaranteed financial sustainability, educational excellence and practical implementation, either within the university or through external partnerships," Simons told students.

He went on to explain that a final decision will rest with the university's general board "and other decision-making bodies." The general board, he added, is likely to meet in January.

The veterinary school has been facing some well-publicized challenges. Last year, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, which regulates the profession in the U.K., placed it on "conditional accreditation" after finding that it had failed to meet 50 of 77 accreditation standards. The school's outlook, however, seemed to brighten last month, when the RCVS said the school had achieved many requested improvements and had been granted another year to remedy 20 remaining areas of concern.

The RCVS, on learning last week of the planned closure, expressed disappointment in light of the progress its officials saw during a site visit in September.

"The visitation panel noted the considerable efforts the department staff had made to make improvements in a relatively short timeframe, and the staff's commitment to improving the remaining issues was clear," the regulator said in a statement. "We also understood from discussions during the visitation that the department had the full and ongoing support of the School of Biological Sciences and wider university."

The university's Department of Veterinary Medicine described the planned closure as a "bolt from the blue" and called on the university to "pause and reconsider a hasty, unjustified and flawed process."

The department maintained the decision lacked transparency, would tarnish the university's reputation as a world leader in all fields of science and had wider implications for the quality of the U.K.'s veterinary workforce and ability to combat future pandemics.

"At a time when the world is under continual threat of animal-sourced pandemics, to undermine the education of the next generations of world-class vets and researchers is surely a risk that is not worth taking, particularly if the decision is about money," the statement reads.

An outpouring of opposition

The university's Department of Veterinary Medicine said it would oppose the school's planned closure "with all the means at our disposal." It has set up a website, Save the Vet School, which has published more than 5,000 supportive messages from staff past and present, students, alumni, animal owners and research and industry bodies.

Many messages posted by people identifying as current students praise their teachers' knowledge and dedication. "I can only hope those behind this recommendation are able to realise what an astonishingly rare blessing they are condemning before it is too late," wrote final-year student Bella Rawson. "I invite them to come to the school for the day, to let me show them the place I am so lucky to have called my home for the past six years, and to see, through my eyes, what kind of education the department provides."

Other students question the apparent financial motivation behind the plan, noting that several new veterinary schools have recently opened in the U.K., including at the University of Central Lancashire and Scotland's Rural College.

"The recommendation that the vet school closes is outrageous and unjustified," posted Laura Wilson, a veterinary medicine student and vice president of the Cambridge University Veterinary Society, a student union. "There is no way this can be a reasonable recommendation, especially as new vet schools are opening across the country, clearly demonstrating it can be done without causing a major financial impact."

Dr. Armando Sánchez-Lara, a teaching professor in small animal medicine at the veterinary school, is among current staff members who posted to the website. He described the planned closure as "profoundly short-sighted" and damaging to public health. "This is not about land, spreadsheets, or convenience; it is about identity, responsibility, community, culture, and safeguarding knowledge," he said. "This is not the end of the story. We will challenge this recommendation with clarity, evidence, and unity."

The BVA, too, posited that a closure of the veterinary school could have far-reaching consequences. "A resilient veterinary workforce relies on a healthy pipeline of homegrown talent and the U.K.'s vet schools, including Cambridge, play a crucial role," it said in a statement.

The association president, Dr. Rob Williams, said he met with the university's senior leadership in June and "secured reassurances" that they remained committed to the long-term future of the veterinary school. "It's therefore deeply concerning to hear that once again the future of Cambridge Vet School is in doubt," he said in the BVA statement. "Working with students, alumni and staff, we're seeking clarity on the situation and will make the case for its veterinary medicine degree course to continue."