In November 2024, the RCVS Education Committee agreed to grant the veterinary degree conditional accreditation after an accreditation visitation earlier that year found deficiencies with the degree meant it only met 27 of the 77 RCVS accreditation standards.
55 recommendations for improvement were made by the visitation panel.
A subsequent visit in September 2025 found that while there were still a significant number of standards to be met, many of the recommendations for improvement had either been achieved, or significant progress had been made towards them being met.
The Education Committee therefore decided to grant the programme conditional accreditation for one year, with an action plan and timetable being put into place to guide how and when the 20 outstanding recommendations would be met.
The next accreditation visit to Cambridge will take place in October 2026.
It was agreed that this timeframe and accreditation status would ensure that progress towards meeting accreditation standards continued at pace, allowing the Department to demonstrate its commitment to student wellbeing and support for learning across the entirety of the veterinary programme.
An RCVS spokesperson said: “We appreciate the considerable efforts and hard work that the staff team within the veterinary department at Cambridge University have put into rectifying many of the issues identified in the 2024 accreditation event, for taking on board the constructive advice that was given and working together to make many of the necessary improvements.
“However, as the report shows, there are still several outstanding areas of concern, and so the Education Committee agreed that it was not yet in a position to grant Cambridge’s veterinary degree full accreditation.
“We have collaborated with Cambridge on putting together an action plan and timeline for meeting the 20 remaining recommendations and we hope that it will continue on its current trajectory towards meeting the RCVS accreditation standards.”
https://www.rcvs.org.uk/document-library/university-of-cambridge-2025-report/
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Email from the vet school We now have further updates which I wanted you to know about. 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. The School has also recommended that the admissions process for October 2026 entry proceeds as planned.
This recommendation will now be considered by the University’s General Board and other University decision-making bodies.
The recommendation comes after the University’s General Board asked the School Council to consider various options for the sustainable delivery of clinical services. All options were explored in-depth and weighed up carefully against the School's strategic vision and plan, 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.
The University remains committed to all current students, and successful applicants for October 2026 entry, completing their studies as planned.