Veterinary Medicine Admissions
Applying to University can be a stressful time, to help you through this process we have pulled together some useful information about our programme and access pathways, as well as some tips on how to make your application stand out.
Our Five-Year Veterinary Medicine Programme
Our programmes will provide you with an exceptional learning experience and qualify you to practise around the world.
The five-year Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery (BVM&S) degree will prepare you for a career as a veterinary professional. This is our main route into veterinary medicine for those with high school qualifications.
We support the University's guidelines on applications from disabled students.
Veterinary Medicine is, however, a practical subject and students must able to handle and examine all animals safely and humanely, and to ensure the safety of themselves and involved personnel.
All applicants are therefore strongly urged to read the guidance provided by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies. In addition, Higher Education Occupational Physicians/Practitioners (HEOPS) have also produced a document outlining the fitness standards expected of veterinary medicine students.
Applying to the R(D)SVS with a disability guidance (579.71 KB PDF)
Applicants who have health problems or a disability, which may have an impact on their ability to carry out these or any other practical procedures, are invited to discuss this in confidence with us before making a formal application.
We assess your application purely on the basis of academic and non-academic suitability as outlined in our entry requirements. Discussions about support requirements will be separate from the application assessment and will only take place once we know an applicant is in offer range.
Suitable applicants with disabilities will be asked for further information prior to offer to make sure they do not fall into any of the three categories above.
You should notify us of any condition at application stage. However, if a condition develops or is diagnosed after this point, even when you become a student, you should notify us so we can look into support arrangements for you.
Further information on our Student Disability Service can be found here.
All UCAS candidates are required to submit a Work Experience Summary Form (WES) by 22 October. The Form does not have a character limit (as opposed to the UCAS personal statement) and you can include details of your duties and responsibilities for each experience listed.
You should gain as much and as varied as practical work experience as possible, which should include time spent in:
- Veterinary practice, both large and small animal if possible;
- Livestock farms - dairying and lambing are particularly useful;
- Other animal establishments, such as zoos, kennels, catteries, wildlife centres, pig farms, poultry farms and stables.
- A day at an abattoir is recommended but not demanded
We encourage experience gained in veterinary or medical laboratories to help you appreciate the scientific basis of veterinary medicine.
We do not ask for specific types or the number of days/weeks required for work experience as it depends, to some extent, on the opportunities available to individual candidates.
The broader the experience the better, but you should not gain experience to the detriment of your academic studies.
After submitting the Form online, you will receive a copy via email. You will need to upload this to your MyEd portal. You will have access to MyEd following submission of your UCAS application.
The University of Edinburgh is committed to widening access. Lear more via the links below.
Find out more about the UCAS application process on our webpages.
We have a wealth of information on our webpages on fees, funding and scholarship opportunities.