#savethevetschool: thousands back campaign as veterinary degree at top university at risk

Thousands have backed a campaign to save the Cambridge University vet school – following a recommendation that the university “ceases veterinary education”.

The recommendation, made by the university’s council of the school of biological sciences, has been described by staff and students as a “bolt out of the blue”.

“Following careful consideration, the council of the school of the biological sciences has recommended that the university cease veterinary education at Cambridge once the final cohort of students is expected to graduate in 2032,” a spokesperson for the University of Cambridge said.

“The school has also recommended that the admissions process for October 2026 entry proceeds as planned.”

The spokesperson said that the recommendation comes after the general board asked the school council “to consider various options for the sustainable delivery of clinical services”. Research and postgraduate qualifications that do not depend on clinical services would continue.

“All options were explored in depth and weighed up carefully against the school’s strategic vision and plan, their implications for teaching and research, financial impact, and achievable implementation, either within the university or through external partnerships. After careful consideration, it was concluded that there was no viable long-term solution,” said the spokesperson.

“We understand that this is a difficult time for colleagues and students in the veterinary school and are putting in place support structures for both staff and students who may be affected.”

The news follows a challenging 18 months for the vet school; in November 2024 it was given 10 months to make improvements to its veterinary degree after a Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) accreditation visit in May 2024 identified “wide-ranging concerns”. The vet school was given “conditional accreditation” – described by the RCVS as a “final warning” – for its degree as it had met only 27 of the 77 RCVS accreditation standards.

Last month the RCVS reported that a subsequent accreditation visit took place in September 2025 and “while there remained a significant number of standards still to be met, many of the recommendations for improvement had either been achieved, or significant progress had been made towards them”. The conditional accreditation was extended by a year, with a plan in place to “guide how and when the 20 outstanding recommendations would be met”. The next accreditation visit was scheduled for October 2026.

H&H has asked the university if the recommendation to cease education relates to the RCVS conditional accreditation.

Staff and students of Cambridge university’s veterinary department have launched a campaign #savethevetschool, which has been supported by thousands of students, alumni, clients and members of the public.

In a statement on 12 December the veterinary department said “the decision to recommend the closure of what the Times Higher Education Supplement ranks as the best undergraduate veterinary course in the world has come as a bolt out of the blue”.

“Staff, students and supporters of the Queen’s Veterinary School Hospital and department of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University are calling on the university authorities to pause and reconsider a hasty, unjustified and flawed process,” read the statement.

“As well as lacking transparency and proper consultation about such a serious and irreversible move, closing the veterinary medicine course also has much wider implications, which are not being taken into account.

The statement said that if another pandemic occurs, “those with world-class knowledge of animal to human disease transmission – both vets and researchers – will be of vital importance”, and highlighted the shortage of vets in the UK, stating that the majority of the school’s graduates “are from the UK and go on to work here”.

“When questioned by us yesterday, the university body which made the recommendation was unable to provide clear and compelling justification for it,” read the statement.

“They would not or could not explain if this rush to judgment is based on concerns about the financial sustainability of the school, about the quality of teaching or about criticisms of the veterinary department raised by the RCVS in 2024.”

The statement added that the staff and students believed the school of biological sciences is acting “precipitately based on a misunderstanding of our finances”.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news from major shows throughout 2025, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

You may also be interested in: