Veterinary Sciences

Veterinary Sciences is undoubtedly one of Cambridge’s most historic, prestigious and competitive courses. There is much overlap in the initial years with the content of the medical and NatSci courses but students soon move on to the unique aspects of animal pathology and partake in their clinical years in an integrated fashion within the Veterinary Department.

Cambridge has world class facilities and teaching and has a scientific bent on the syllabus and the way that it teaches versus some of the other Vet Schools in the UK. There is a lot of high impact small group teaching and practical work so that students learn key skills such as animal handling in advance of the clinical years. The Department operates small animal and equine hospitals and equine and farm animal clinical services in order to provide clinical teaching material, as well as using the state of the art 200 cow university dairy herd and sheep flock at nearby Madingley

The subject has been offered at Oxford since 1949, starting with just 8 students. Central topics you will cover in the initial preclinical years include the following:

• Principles of Animal Management – an intensive course in animal husbandry and management, including comprehensive animal handling training across a wide range of species
• Preparing for the Veterinary Profession – introducing you to the professional, ethical, financial, legal and social dimensions of your chosen career
• Homeostasis – covering the physiological systems which underpin the animal body’s regulation of its internal environment and its responses to external threats. You also have practical classes in related aspects of experimental physiology and histology
• Molecules in Medical Science – looking at the chemical and molecular basis of how cells and organisms work, as well as the genetic foundations of animal populations
• Veterinary Anatomy and Physiology – functional anatomy of organs and tissues of domestic animals, and the direct relevance of animal structure in clinical veterinary medicine. The course involves extensive dissection of eight species, integrated teaching of diagnostic imaging as well as topographic anatomy sessions in live animals
• Introduction to the Scientific Basis of Medicine – covering epidemiology and how it’s applied in veterinary medicine
• Biology of Disease – dealing with the nature and mechanisms of disease processes, and the mechanisms by which animals detect, resist and destroy agents of disease
• Mechanisms of Drug Action – providing a clinically-focused understanding of how drugs enter animals’ bodies, how they’re distributed around them, how they act on cells and organs, and how they’re removed
• Neurobiology and Animal Behaviour – covering the structure and function of the sense organs and central nervous system, and introductions to neurological examinations of live animals
• Veterinary Reproductive Biology – looking at the physiology of fertility, pregnancy, development, birth and the neonate in domestic animals
• Comparative Vertebrate Biology – an introduction to the biology of fish, reptiles, birds, rodents and ‘exotic’ mammals, including practical classes in the handling and husbandry of these species

Please contact us for more details on our tuition and mentoring services.

Dates for Mock Interview weekends and Tutorial simulation. Now available