More North American veterinary schools

There are plans for 2 new veterinary schools in Arizona and 1 in Tennessee. In June of this year Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona was given the green light for a new veterinary school through a letter of Reasonable Assurance by the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Council on Education (AVMA-COE). Midwestern University, a private, non-profit university, is spending over $100 million to build new physical facilities and has started to recruit students for its targeted 100 students per class, beginning in the fall of 2014. The physical structures will include a large animal teaching facility, and a small animal clinic (1,2). The University of Arizona, in Tucson, also has plans to build a veterinary school (3). Agriculture and Life Sciences dean Shane Burgess is reported to have said that the proposal is for a veterinary curriculum in which students selected from the first year of a program in the School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences would take another 3 years of year-round study in order to complete the program. Clinical experience would be gained through private hospitals and clinics.

Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) in Harrogate, Tennessee, received approval from the AVMA-COE in July, 2013, and will also start operating in 2014. LMU will offer a 6-year program during which students will earn a BA and a DVM. The LMU College of Veterinary and Comparative Medicine does not plan to have a veterinary hospital and will use 30 local veterinary practitioners to provide field experience for the students (2,4). There were plans for a new veterinary school in Buffalo, New York, but those have been cancelled.

The North American market for veterinary graduates is also feeling the impact of graduates from recently accredited schools in the Caribbean. In March, 2011, the veterinary school at Ross University in St. Kitts (a for-profit university), which had been operating a DVM program since 1982, became accredited by the AVMA. This university has agreements with American veterinary schools to provide clinical training for its students. Ross takes in students 3 times per year and graduates over 200 students each year; most of these students return to the United States. Over the past 5 years the percent of Ross DVM graduates who passed the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination (NAVLE) ranged from 93% to 97%. In September, 2011, St. George’s University School of Veterinary Medicine in Grenada earned AVMA accreditation. There are approximately 160 graduates per year from St. George’s, which has arrangements for clinical training that are similar to those for Ross University. In 2010–2011, 96% of St. George’s DVM graduates passed the NAVLE.

What does all this mean? More students are getting an opportunity to follow their dream of becoming a veterinarian who graduated from an accredited veterinary program. However, there are concerns that more graduates are coming into a market, which appears to be saturated. Companion animal practice is estimated to be at capacity and, although there is a shortage of large animal veterinarians in some areas, these areas appear to be ones that are unable to sustain a veterinary practice.

The AVMA has determined that there are some 11 250 equivalent full-time veterinarians more than are needed and that in excess of 50% of veterinarians who were surveyed were not working at full capacity (2). Some leaders in veterinary medicine have suggested that market forces will re-align supply and demand. However, that is a slow, uncertain, and painful process as the decision to study veterinary medicine is often far removed from the realities of job opportunities. Should accreditation of new programs also require consideration of the demand for more graduates? Such an approach would likely encounter difficulties. However, the AVMA-COE and the deans of veterinary schools in North America and the Caribbean should be discussing how best to address the situation.