It's the fourth proposed US program to stall since 2023, but surge in openings continues
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Midwestern University announced this week it will no longer pursue plans to open a veterinary school on its Illinois campus.
In what it describes as a "strategic realignment," Midwestern University has announced it will "pause further action" on developing a veterinary school at its campus in Downers Grove, Illinois.
"While this was a difficult decision, it reflects a strategic assessment of the university's priorities and where we can have the greatest long-term impact through education, patient care, research and service," Patrick O'Hara, vice president of university advancement, said in an email yesterday to the VIN News Service.
O'Hara added that the university's commitment to veterinary medicine "remains strong" through its veterinary school in Glendale, Arizona, which opened in 2014.
The planned new Midwestern program is the fourth in the United States to derail since 2023. Marshall University in West Virginia shelved its plans that year. Chamberlain University nixed its proposed program in Georgia in 2024, and last November, Hanover College in Indiana suspended its efforts.
In the same period, veterinary education in the U.S. has seen a surge in new programs. Since 2023, six schools have opened or are about to open, and six more remain in the pipeline. Leaders of the new and proposed programs have cited a shortage of veterinarians in some regions and practice types as the chief driver of expansion.
A private, not-for-profit graduate institution, Midwestern announced its intention for a second veterinary program, at its campus in suburban Chicago, in June 2024. The announcement said the decision was "in response to the growing need for skilled veterinarians." It also cited the aim of helping to "address the need for critical research to aid in public health and the demand for qualified professionals to serve as leaders and educators within the veterinary profession."
The university originally aimed to seat its first class in fall 2026. That date was revised in successive announcements to 2027 and then 2028.
The American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education, the only accreditor in the U.S. of veterinary programs, was scheduled in May 2025 to make a consultative site visit. Such visits are how the AVMA COE assesses a program's readiness for accreditation. Neither the accreditor nor Midwestern has released additional information about the visit, including whether it went ahead as scheduled.
The higher education board in Illinois approved the development of the Chicago College of Veterinary Medicine, as it had come to be named, last November.
The six veterinary schools that have recently opened or will open soon in the U.S. and its territories are at Arkansas State University, Clemson University in South Carolina, Lincoln Memorial University in Florida, Rowan University in New Jersey, Universidad Ana G. Méndez in Puerto Rico and Utah State University.
The six institutions in various stages of creating veterinary programs are Lyon College in Arkansas, Murray State University in Kentucky, Rocky Vista University in Montana, Roseman University of Health Sciences in Nevada, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and the University of Nevada, Reno.