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Cambridge

Photo by Robert Evans via Alamy

This Cambridge University building houses the Department of Veterinary Medicine.

The University of Cambridge will keep its veterinary school open, bucking a closure recommendation by the institution's own senior officials that sparked a barrage of public opposition.

The school's future remains under a cloud, as the prestigious English university attempts to stem the school's financial losses and rectify deficiencies identified in its veterinary medicine program by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the United Kingdom's regulator for the profession.

In December, Cambridge's School of the Biological Sciences, which encompasses disciplines including biochemistry, genetics, veterinary medicine and zoology, recommended that the university cease veterinary education once the students who begin the program this year graduate in 2032. The School of Biological Science's leadership council voted 11-0, with two abstentions, for the closure, according to a letter sent to students by its head, Jon Simons, that cited "ongoing financial challenges."

The final decision rested with the university's general board, which rejected the closure recommendation, judging from a statement issued by the university on Monday. The statement says the university "heard the strength of feeling in the community around Cambridge continuing to offer veterinary education" and it would "continue to admit students onto the course."

The veterinary school itself, formally known as the Department of Veterinary Medicine, had expressed vocal opposition to the closure. It set up a website, Save the Vet School, which published thousands of supportive messages from staff past and present, students, alumni, animal owners, and research and industry bodies, such as the British Veterinary Association and National Farmers Union.

On Monday, the university said "there is a need for new leadership" at the veterinary school, without naming names. It said it would implement a "financial reorganization of clinical services" that had been outlined by the Department of Veterinary Medicine, adding, "all immediate cost savings identified by the vet school should go ahead without delay." It did not detail the nature of the reorganization, the extent of the cost-cutting or how many jobs might be axed. The university did not reply to a request for comment.

In his letter to students in December, Simons said the School of the Biological Sciences had considered alternatives to closure, including "significant cost savings," a "commercial restructuring" of the veterinary teaching hospital and "various kinds" of external partnerships.

Rudi Bruijn-Yard, a fifth-year student in the six-year undergraduate program and president of the Cambridge University Veterinary Society, said he was heartened by the university's decision.

"This is the outcome that we have been campaigning so hard for over the past few months," he said by email today. "The decision ensures that we remain a vital part of the Cambridge ecosystem, as we have for the last 76 years, and immediately reaffirms our security moving forwards."

At the same time, Bruijn-Yard expressed concern about the possibility of job cuts.

"We heard yesterday that significant restructuring will occur, and the processes to enact these changes will begin today," he said. "We are still fearful for our staff who are as yet in the dark as to what form this will take. No assurances have been made for them. We are not aware whether 'restructuring' means losing parts of our department and/or moving specialist teaching to external hospitals."

The BVA, which represents more than 19,000 veterinarians in the U.K., said the decision was "hugely positive" and called on the university to ensure the school is well-funded.

"It's essential the university commits to ensuring the school is appropriately resourced to preserve its vital role at the forefront of global health and scientific leadership, now and in the future," BVA President Dr. Rob Williams said in a press release.

The VIN News Service is unaware of any veterinary school closures in recent history, at least in English-speaking countries, apart from a short-lived effort at the University of Antigua in the Caribbean, which commenced teaching in 2010 and shut in 2011.

Some veterinary programs have experienced financial challenges. The veterinary school at Tuskegee University in Alabama is at risk of losing accreditation in the United States due to what its accreditor, the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education, describes as "major deficiencies" in its finances, clinical resources and outcomes assessment. In Australia, the University of Melbourne veterinary school in 2022 stopped operating its teaching hospital, which it now leases to a corporate practice chain.

Many schools worldwide are now being built without teaching hospitals, which are expensive to run, instead sending students for clinical training to off-campus practices that partner with the school.