Veterinary Medicine

Veterinary Medicine at Wolfson

There are many good reasons for choosing to read Veterinary Medicine at Cambridge. Our course is very practical, with plenty of animal contact from the beginning of the first year all the way through to the lecture-free final year. This is underpinned by an unrivalled high quality scientific education which equips you uniquely to problem-solve in veterinary practice or in whatever future career you chose.

The key to being a skilled vet is combining practical skills with excellent grounding in the science underlying practice. You will be fully immersed in our environment of cutting-edge biomedicine, and experience shows that this makes our graduates better equipped to deal with the high pace of change in veterinary medicine, and poised for a wide variety of flexible and challenging careers.

A major feature of the Cambridge course is its practical emphasis. From your first week, you learn handling and management skills in all the major domestic species, and subsequently with amphibians, reptiles, birds and ‘exotic’ mammals. Our students have the use of superb facilities at the Clinical School – bespoke consultation and examination facilities, imaging and surgical suites, a linear accelerator for radiotherapy, clinical pathology and post mortem labs, also a Clinical Skills Lab is available 24 hours a day for students in all years.

The unique opportunities provided by a Cambridge veterinary education are invaluable in our graduates’ future career progression and flexibility. Indeed, external feedback confirms that our graduates are better equipped to deal with unexpected clinical situations and the high pace of change in veterinary medicine.

The Cambridge Veterinary School is the smallest UK vet school, training around 70 each year, and this is central to our students’ experience. Right from the start, you will be in very small dissection, animal handling, and lab practical groups. You will also benefit from Cambridge’s unique ‘supervision’ small group teaching system – which gives you regular opportunities to consolidate your learning and follow up on your interests. Later in the course, the small class size become even more valuable. Our clinical rotation groups are tiny, which ensures a high caseload, and thus more experience and confidence by the time you qualify.

Almost all Cambridge vet graduates go into veterinary practice when they graduate, and many stay for the rest of their careers - in farm, equine, small animal and exotics practice, in the UK and across the world. Those who decide to do further training, or study for qualification as a veterinary specialist find that the unparalleled scientific and clinical training they received at Cambridge puts them in an excellent position to further their career. 

You can find further information about studying Veterinary Medicine on the University's course pages. Detailed information is also available on the Department's Prospective Undergraduates page.