University of Glasgow Faculty of Veterinary Science ...

Review of BVMS program

Curriculum Report – Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

University of GlasgowUniversity of GlasgowUniversity of GlasgowUniversity of Glasgow

Faculty of Veterinary MedicineFaculty of Veterinary MedicineFaculty of Veterinary MedicineFaculty of Veterinary Medicine

Review of Program inReview of Program inReview of Program inReview of Program in

Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine & SurgeryBachelor of Veterinary Medicine & SurgeryBachelor of Veterinary Medicine & SurgeryBachelor of Veterinary Medicine & Surgery

Jennifer L. Hodgson

Associate Dean Academic Affairs

Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine


Curriculum Report – Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

Table of Contents

I. Background Information Page 1

II. Current Climate, Constraints and Challenges Page 3

a. Decreasing Recurrent Funds Page 4

b. Increasing Competition amongst Veterinary Faculties Page 5

c. Current Staff Climate Page 5

d. Accrediting Agencies Page 6

e. Information Abundance Page 7

III. Objectives of External Review Page 8

a. Balance and Relevance of Subjects - Broad Curriculum Mapping

i. Year 1 Courses Page 10

ii. Year 2 Courses Page 10

iii. Year 3 Courses 7

iv. Year 4 Courses Page 40

v. Year 5 Courses Page 49

b. Program Management Page 53

c. Current Curriculum in terms of

i. Developing the political ambitions of global “one health” Page 66

ii. Addressing the international nature of the students Page 66

iii. Long term robustness of the curriculum Page 67

IV. Issues and Recommendations

a. Issues Identified Page 68

b. Solutions Proposed Page 70

Appendices

References and Resources Page 79

Alternate Course Options offered at North American Universities Page 86


Curriculum Report – Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Page 1

Summary Report and Recommendations

University of Glasgow: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

I. Background Information The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine was founded in 1862 within the University of Glasgow and gained

independent Faculty status in 1969. The Glasgow University Veterinary School (GUVS) is located at the

Garscube Estate, four miles from the main campus of the University of Glasgow. The majority of

teaching within Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery degree occurs at Garscube, though some

classes in the earlier years are taught on main campus.

Program Structure

Two degree programs are taught by members of faculty; the Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine & Surgery

(BVMS) and the Bachelor of Science (Veterinary Biosciences) (BSVB). The latter degree will not be

discussed in this report except in the context of the impact this degree may have on the ability of staff to

deliver the BVMS degree.

Number of Years in BVMS Program

The BVMS degree is taught over 5 years with 4 years of didactic teaching and a lecture-free final year.

This structure is typical of veterinary schools within the UK and Australia, but differs from North

American programs which all have 4 year degrees. One reason for this discrepancy is that students may

directly enter into veterinary school from high school in the UK/Australia, whereas students in North

America only enter after completing at least 2 and usually 4 years of undergraduate studies at

University.

The number of years of the program has implications for successful recruitment of students due to the

increased number of US students studying at GUVS (see further discussion see under Constraints).

Teaching Times

Courses are taught within a three terms system, though teaching predominantly occurs in term 1

(Martinmas) and term 2 (Candlemas) with teaching activities in term 3 (Whitsun) mostly involving

revision lectures/tutorials, study time and final (professional) exams.

Term 1 is 11 weeks in length with class exams occurring in week 12.

Term 2 is 9 weeks in length with class exams occurring in week 10.

Term 3 is 8 weeks in length with professional exams occurring during the last 2 weeks.



Total teaching time at GUVS ~ 20 weeks/year over 4 years (~80 weeks) with a lecture-free final year

� teaching time varies between courses and may be slightly longer or shorter than indicated

� in addition, there are 40 weeks of revision and assessment occurring in term 3, which may

include didactic teaching for some courses

� however, the timetables examined did not indicate that this was very extensive

Comparison of Teaching Times with Other Veterinary Schools:

Sydney University

� 5 year degree

� 2 semesters/year

o Semester 1: 13 weeks of teaching, 1 week of study vacation, 2 weeks of exams

o Semester 2: 13 weeks of teaching, 1 week of study vacation, 2 weeks of exams

� Total teaching time ~26 weeks/year over 4 years (104 weeks) with a lecture-free final year

� there is also 24 weeks of revision and assessment which does not include any further didactic

instruction

Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (VMRCVM)

� 4 year degree

� 2 semesters/year

o Semester 1: 15 weeks of teaching, 2 weeks of exams

o Semester 2: 15 weeks of teaching, 2 weeks of exams

� Total teaching time ~30 weeks/year over 3 years (90 weeks) with a lecture-free final year

� there is also 12 weeks of revision and assessment which does not include any further didactic

instruction

Courses

There are 4 major courses taught per years in years 1-3. These courses are taught through the three

terms. There are nominally 120 credits taught per year where 1 credit is 10 student learning hours (not

contact hours). Each of the 4 courses has approximately 30 credits.

There are 2 major courses taught per year in years 4-5. These courses are taught throughout the three

terms in year 4, and for the entire year in year 5. Each of these courses has approximately 60 credits.

Glasgow University does not have a required formula for contact hours (as per University of Sydney –

maximum of 24 direct contact hours/student/week).



Curriculum

Teaching of the veterinary degree at GUVS is divided along traditional lines with years 1 and 2 focusing

on pre-clinical courses, year3 on para-clinical courses and years 4 and 5 on clinical courses. Vertical and

horizontal integration of these courses within and between years is a concern, as will be noted

elsewhere in this report.

This structure is common in veterinary curricula worldwide – though increasingly curricula are changing

to improve integration of preclinical, paraclinical and clinical subjects. Some veterinary schools are

doing this through subject integration (Cavalieri, 2009) and others are undergoing marked curriculum re-

design in order to bring forward clinical subjects within veterinary curricula e.g., PBL model at Western

University, curriculum restructure at Illinois University (Foreman et al, 2010).

Accreditation

The faculty of Veterinary Medicine is currently accredited with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons

(RCVS) and the European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education (EAEVE). In

conjunction with these two accrediting agencies, they are also accredited with the Australasian

Veterinary Boards Council (AVBC). The last visitation by these accrediting agencies was in 2002 and a

site visit for ongoing accreditation will occur in 2012.

The faculty is also accredited with the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) where a site

visit was conducted in 2007 with accreditation granted until 2013.

Ongoing endorsement of all these accrediting agencies is essential for the financial security of GUVS.

A number of additional reviews of the faculty and its curriculum have been conducted in recent years

including;

� A Scottish Higher Education Funding Council Quality Assessment in November 1996

� An internal review by the Academic Standards Committee of the University of Glasgow in

November 2006

II. Current Climate, Constraints and Challenges: There are a number of constraints and challenges currently facing GUVS and which will impact upon a

potential curriculum review and its delivery. These constraints and challenges also must be viewed

within the context of the current climate of veterinary medical education not only within Scotland and

the UK, but also globally:



a) Decreasing Recurrent Funds

� The downturn in the global economy has exacerbated an ongoing trend for decreased

government funding of Higher Education, which has had a trickle-down effect with decreasing

University support for veterinary faculties

� This has driven a need for veterinary faculties to seek alternate sources of income, with

additional tuition fees via an increased class size a common solution for veterinary faculties

worldwide; as has occurred at GUVS

� The expansion of student numbers has predominantly occurred through an increase in

full fee paying international students, where ~ 1/3rd of students at GUVS are

international, primarily from North America, but increasing numbers from other

countries e.g., Botswana, South East Asia

� the need to attract and retain high number of North American students has a number of

implications for the curriculum review including:

� the number of years within the program (5 year versus 4 year degree which is

common in the US)

• the increased number of years results in increased cost of education for

the US students and therefore they are less likely to attend GUVS

• other UK schools offer 4 year degree e.g., Edinburgh

• however, introduction of a 4 year degree at GUVS would be difficult due

to the recent introduction of the BSs(VetBiosci) degree and resulting

increased teaching load for staff

� some of the courses offered in the current curriculum they may have already

taken as prerequisites for entry into veterinary schools in the US e.g.,

Biochemistry/Biomolecular Sciences, Animal Husbandry/Science

� there will be increased competition for these international students from other

veterinary faculties in the UK, Australasia, the Caribbean and possibly Europe as many of

these faculties also require increased monies and are looking to attract overseas

students

� in addition many of the US schools are going to increase class size in order to obtain

more tuition monies and so more students may be retained in the North American

system

� this will result in decrease numbers of eligible students and increase the need for GUVS

to be seen as offering a modern and innovative veterinary curriculum so that high

quality students can continue to be attracted to this school to maintain class size and

decrease the problem of student attrition due to academic dismissal

� the decreased funds also have driven a requirement for the veterinary teaching hospitals

(clinics) to be self-funding

� this has placed an added impost on clinical and paraclinical staff time with decreased

time for teaching



� Impending restructure of Glasgow University

� The restructure will have implications for availability of staff to teach and cost of

teaching

� There will also be an increased push for research dollars – therefore potentially

decreased time for teaching, especially for the development of innovative teaching

practices

� The introduction of the BSc(VetBiosci) degree, and resultant increased teaching load for staff,

will impact the curriculum review as recommendations for a major restructure, with potential

double teaching of some courses in some years, would be very difficult given this additional

impost on staff time

b) Increasing competition among veterinary faculties

� Most of the other veterinary faculties in the UK have undergone significant curricular review in

recent years:

� Edinburgh – new curriculum

� RVC – new curriculum

� Nottingham – started from scratch

� Bristol – developing new curriculum

� Cambridge – unique system

� Liverpool – developing new curriculum 2010-2011 (Kathy McGowan, pers comm. 2010)

� Even if these new curricula are not very good(!) – the perceptions of the accrediting agencies

(e.g., RVCS) may be more negative if GUVS has not undergone a curriculum review before their

next visit in the light of these trends

c) Current staff climate

� Staff describe themselves as overwhelmed and overworked, especially with introduction of the

new degree, increased student numbers and the push for increased research output and clinic

incomes

� Many of the staff have stated a desired for “Evolution not Revolution” in a curriculum review;

they agreed that GUVS needs to undertake a curriculum review, but there is little support for an

entirely new curriculum

� The number of non-veterinarians teaching in preclinical and paraclinical courses was raised as a

concern by both clinical faculty and also faculty teaching in the pre- and paraclinical courses

� There was concern it would be more difficult to integrate pre-, para- and clinical courses

and to teach courses with a clinical focus/context to demonstrate relevance for students

� Some doubt as to the “value” of teaching, especially with regards rewards and recognition

within both the faculty and the university



d) Accrediting Agencies

� Currently the GUVS is accredited with a number of different agencies, each of which have

different agendas and concerns:

� Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS)

o This agency accredits schools within the UK and visits every 10 years to

determine if veterinary schools meet accreditation requirements

o The next site visit will be in 20012

o A number of concerns were outlined in the last site visit report by this agency

and which must be addressed (or seen to be addressed) for the next visit:

1. Differences in Problem Solving across the curriculum – need to be more

consistent

2. The Faculty Teaching Committee (now the Learning and Teaching

Committee) should exercise more authority, spread good practice and

achieve increased consistency between individual modules

3. Lecture load appeared high, especially in the third and fourth years

4. Flexibility in the program; currently only “electives” occurring in final

year and only choice is between Food Animal and Equine. GUVS

encouraged to review these concept and potentially offer more “true”

electives/choice

5. a more formal process of peer review of teaching should be instituted

across the whole programme

� European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education (EAEVE)

o the UK veterinary schools are also bound by the European Directives on mutual

recognition of qualifications; where Directive 2005/36/EC sets out minimum

training requirements for veterinary surgeons throughout EU

o RCVS uses European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education

(EAEVE) evaluation criteria in their entirety for visitations so that common

standards can be applied across Europe

o however, there has been an increasing tension between the EAEVE and the UK

veterinary faculties/RCVS with regards the amount of required teaching some

areas; particularly in Veterinary Public Health

o EAEVE places a great emphasis on this subject and they are becoming

increasingly prescriptive about the amount teaching time within curricula that

should be devoted to this subject

o a recent meeting and report by the OIE emphasizes this rift

1. “Veterinary Education for Global Animal & Public Health” (OIE Scientific

& Technical Review, 28 (2) – 2009) where many reports within this

publication outlined “Essential Veterinary Education in......” – various

aspects of public health



o the UK schools acknowledge the importance of this subject area, but would like

to focus veterinary education on “Just in Time” knowledge/skills/attributes

rather than “Just in Case” which is more the focus of EAEVE

� Australasian Veterinary Board Council (AVBC)

o Has reciprocal relations with RVCS (and consequently EAEVE) where “visitors”

are sent on site visits and reports are accepted by the respective agencies

o The AVBC has also recently negotiated an agreement with the AVMA-COE which

recognizes harmonization of the accreditation standards and allows

simultaneous site visits to be conducted on co-accredited faculties in Australasia

o There is a move in the UK be included in this type of agreement, but due to

greater differences between the standards required by EAEVE and the AVMA,

this has not progressed

� American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)

o ongoing accreditation with AVMA is essential for continued financial viability of

the GUVS

o the most recent site visit very successful

o however, the AVMA is becoming increasingly focused on the accountability of

veterinary faculties in demonstrating the competence of their graduates

(Outcomes Assessment)

o consequently they want faculties to have evidence that they have:

1. defined required competencies (Knowledge/Skills/Attributes) of their

graduates

2. demonstrated these competencies have been achieved by new

graduates (outcomes assessment)

3. used outcomes assessment to improve curriculum where needed

e) Information Abundance

� “The quality, diversity, depth and breadth of veterinary information which is now instantly

accessible to anyone with a computer is breathtaking”

� veterinary faculties can no longer expect to fit all the available knowledge, for the diverse

species covered in veterinary medicine, within a standard curriculum

� therefore veterinary faculties, through curriculum reviews, are now deciding what should be

core information and what may be additional information, potentially taught in electives

� the GUVS also needs to be aware of international drivers in this area with the potential for

“Tracking and Streaming” (and as a consequence limited licensure) being discussed and

recommended by various reports (see Foresight report, 2007)

� furthermore, the GUVS needs to ensure any core program is applicable for the diverse student

body studying within the school, or offer alternate courses which are relevant to different

student groups



III. Objectives of External Review

The objective of the external review was to develop an overview of the BVMS program from the

perspective of:

a. balance and relevance of subjects within the program (including potential deficiencies)

b. program management

c. assessment of the current curriculum in terms of:

i. the developing political ambitions of a global “one health” agenda

ii. addressing the international nature of our student population

iii. long term robustness in light of likely changes in the societal and professional

pressures driving the outcomes of veterinary education.

Material included in this review was collected from:

� emails from the Associate Dean Learning and Teaching at Glasgow

� interviews with the Course Leaders, Faculty Administrators and Students

� documents on Moodle including Course Information Documents and Timetables

� the AVMA Self-Study Report of GUVS from the latest site visit

� the RCVS report from the latest site visit

� the University of Glasgow Academic Standards Committee Report of the Review of Veterinary

Medicine, November 2006

� BVMS Student Assessment Procedures, Cambridge Assessment and Quality Assurance

Associates, June 2009

� the University of Sydney student handbook

� the Virginia Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine website for Course Information.

A visit was made to the Faculty in Glasgow covering the period 1st – 5th February 2010

The author wishes to acknowledge that the views ascribed to personnel at GUVS were as noted during

the interviews, but which may not be their true opinions due to inaccuracies in recording.1

a) Balance and Relevance of Subjects - Broad Curriculum Mapping

In order to determine the current balance and relevance of subjects within the various courses taught

within the BVMS program I obtained the course topics from:

� Learning Objectives in Course Information Documents

� Current timetables

� AVMA Curriculum Digest.

1 Contributors to the discussions had the opportunity to amend statements attributed to them where they were of

the opinion an obvious misunderstanding had occurred.



It should be noted that there were quite a lot of discrepancies between course information documents,

current timetables and the AVMA digest and these have been indicated in places.

However, the type and number of lectures obtained were very useful for broad curriculum mapping

and to make comparisons to other veterinary curricula, specifically the curricula at the University of

Sydney and the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (VMRCVM).



Table of Course Hours and Student Contact Hours

YEAR COURSE LECTURES LAB OTHER TOTAL

Veterinary Anatomy 1 52 103.5 0 155.5

Veterinary Physiology 1 41 12 0 53

Veterinary Animal Husbandry 60 34 38 132

Veterinary Biomolecular Sciences 1 61 6 27 94

1

Total Contact Hours Year 1 212 145.5 65 422.5

• ~20 weeks of instruction in year1 = ~ 21.1 contact hours/week


Veterinary Anatomy 2 88.5 162 0 250.5

Veterinary Physiology 2 57 10 10 77

Veterinary Animal Husbandry 2 56 24 20 100

Veterinary Biomolecular Sciences 2 37 3 6 45

2

Total Contact Hours Year 2 238.5 199 36 472.5

• 20 weeks of instruction in year2 = ~ 24.6 contact hours/week


Veterinary Microbiology 58.5 26.75 0 85.25

Veterinary Parasitiology 36 22 18 76

Veterinary Pathology 79 55 34.5 168.5

Veterinary Pharmacology 63 21 32 116

3

Total Contact Hours Year 3 236.5 124.75 84.5 445.75

• 20 weeks of instruction in year3= ~ 22.3 hours/week


Companion Animal Sciences (CAS) 200 24 138 362

Combined Integrated Course (CIS) 174 26 42 242

4

Total Contact Hours Year 4 374 50 180 604

• 20 weeks of instruction in year4 = ~ 30.2 hours/week

Note: In comparison:

� Sydney University; students cannot have more than 24 contact hours per week of instruction

by University regulations – all years of veterinary school have this amount (and at times we

found it hard to keep to this!)

� VMRCVM; more difficult to compare as varies depending on the track/elective courses students

take, but generally in the order of 20-24 contact hours/week



Mapping of Course Content – Anatomy 1&2

YEAR COURSE LECTURE TOPICS LECTURE LAB OTHER TOTAL

Locomotor system: Thoracic Limb (dog, cat, horse, ox), Pelvic Limb (dog, cat,

horse, ox)

11 11 (44

hrs)

Basic Cells and Tissues 10 5 (?)

Embryology 10? 2 (?)

Vertebral Column & Body Wall 10? 2 (?)

Neuro-anatomy 11 2 (?)

Allied Subjects: Imaging modalities (2hrs); Instrument Handling (2hrs);

Communication Skills (3hrs); Suturing Lecture (1hr) & Prac (2hrs)

3

1 Veterinary

Anatomy 1

TOTAL 52 103.5 0 155.5

YEAR COURSE LECTURE TOPICS LECTURE LAB OTHER TOTAL

Common Integument 1 (?) ?

Respiratory System 5 (?)

Cardiovascular System 2 (?)

Digestive System 10 (?)

Endocrine

Female & Male Reproductive Tracts 10 (?)

Renal System 1 (?)

Special Senses 6 (?)

Anatomy of Fish 1 (?)

Anatomy of Amphibians & Reptiles 2 (?)

Anatomy of Small Mammals 1 (?)

Anatomy of Birds

2 Veterinary

Anatomy 2

TOTAL 88.5 162 250.5



1. Comparison of Teaching Time between Universities:

� see table on page 16

2. Discussion with Course Leader – Anatomy 1 and 2 (Maureen Bain):

� some recent changes

� decoupled all 1st and 2nd year exams (? Does this mean that they are no longer

cumulative i.e. 2nd year exam does not cover both 1st and 2nd year (543 hours of

material!!!) – great progress!

� have a lecture on basic anatomy and then a guest lecturer (clinician) will give a lecture

on clinical anatomy; this is not examined per se, but additional marks are given in essays

for referring to this material (!!!). These lectures re-enforce the relevance of the

material being taught

� identified some issues with the course

� Year 2 – large volume of material (slight understatement!)

� assessment Year 1:

� 2 in-class exams (7.5% each; include fore, hind and neuro material; includes 1 essay,

section of short answers, spot practical)

� degree exam at end of year (155 hrs of material), 85% of final mark, same format as

above

� assessment Year 2:

� as above – more material

� have cut back to not include Year 1

� student Evaluation – well evaluated (note: I didn’t see any data for any of the courses)

� students like structure of doing Anatomy all day Friday

� have sought feedback from later years to evaluate relevance of the course

� historically not very good; but improved recently

� but still “hospital versus us”

� do have clinicians on the anatomy teaching teams which has helped (see comment as to

how these are used – give lectures but material not examined directly

� ? time factor for clinicians to evaluate

� clinicians – offer to help teach anatomy

� declined as “clinicians only want to teach applied anatomy” and don’t give full

course

� and students only learn this and the wont pass exams as expected to it all

(though only have to get 50% to pass)

� a number of Clinical Techniques and related lectures (e.g. imaging, suturing) have recently been

introduced in this course - which is to be commended

� the faculty were asked what they thought was distinctive about Glasgow:

� all students on one site (which was a common observation by many faculty)



� community feel for students (supportive environment)

� Weiper’s Centre

� Public Health is a strength

� students still get all round education – good for mixed practice

3. Issues:

� Issue noted by Course Leader:

� Lack of staffing

� Used to be 5.5 faculty – now only 2.5

� Are also expected to teach BSc – but extra person was put on for this

� Staff:student ratio now very high

• have full class (120) in the practical classes – not enough demonstrators

(2 per prac) and sometimes only one member of faculty for whole

class!!! – sometimes only have 1 person in charge in labs!

• do have some IT materials to help teach these classes (e.g., videos) and

also the teaching manual

� number of hours in courses (especially Year 2)

� too much material

� but have recognized a problem in that students only think they have to know

the material on the Power Point slides; though do recognize that the students

are saturated with information

� ready to dramatically trim the course

� have been waiting for the Curriculum Review for direction!

� Issues noted by JLH

� number of hours taught within anatomy is one of the major issue with the current

program (see table on page 16 for comparison between Glasgow, University of Sydney,

VMRCVM)

� appears to be an issue as to the relevance of this topic – how well these courses are

integrated with material presented later in the program (e.g., surgery – topical and

applied anatomy; radiology etc) – needs to be greater contextualization of the material

� assessment of such a large topic – with professional exams requiring a huge amount of

information to be assimilated and understood; this is NOT currently being achieved (see

assessment review)

� a minor issue is that it was very difficult to correlate Timetables with Course Information

Document for lectures/laboratory classes (especially for lab classes) – so hours reported

may not be correct



Mapping of Course Content – Physiology 1 & 2

YEAR COURSE LECTURE TOPIC LECTURE LAB OTHER TOTAL

Neuromuscular Physiology; Neurophysiology, Muscular physiology, autonomic

nervous system; nerve-muscle practical

11 6

Energy Metabolism 1

Central Nervous System 11

Special Senses 3

Body Fluids 1

Blood (Blood Smears) 2 6

Endocrinology 4

Welfare & Ethics (stress, physiological parameters; pain & pain perception) 1

Temperature Regulation 2

Renal 5

1 Veterinary

Physiology 1

TOTAL 41 12 0 53

YEAR COURSE LECTURE TOPIC LECTURE LAB OTHER TOTAL

Respiratory System 10 2 labs

Cardiovascular System 12 3 labs

Gastrointestinal System 7 1 lab

Reproduction – female (focus on endocrinology) 8

Reproduction – lactation 2

Reproduction – male 3

Renal Physiology –water balance 5

Manipulation of physiological systems with pharmacological agents 2

Tutorials 4

2 Veterinary

Physiology 2

TOTAL 57 (?) 20 0 77



1. Comparison of Teaching Time between Universities:

� see table page 16

2. Discussion with Course Leader – Physiology 1 and 2 (Ian Jeffcoate):

� currently this course links with anatomy as they are taught concurrently and the two subjects try

hard to link the topics taught – think this occurs to a large extent

� also linked (to a lesser extent) with Biomolecular Sciences

� do also have good links with Pharmacology (e.g. adding the therapeutics lectures)

� the course leader questioned the need to � further the hours of Physiology taught

o have already decreased the practical classes – many taken out

o have also decreased the number of contact hours in Year 1 (used to be 65 now 53)

o did acknowledge the possibility of teaching physiology within later courses may also be

used to � current hours in the courses

� feedback from later years as to relevance of material taught

o don’t really seek it

o lot of throw away comments from students – but they aren’t clinicians – and the courses

don’t really have adverse student feedback (note data not seen by the reviewer)

� 5 people teach in this course including 2 veterinarians (other Animal Scientists)

o so can use veterinary examples whenever relevant (not seen as a problem)

� anticipate big changes due to requirements of the Curriculum Review?

o but would prefer small changes

o concerned that there is little in the current discussions as to what is taught where

o questioning what is driving change (doesn’t appear to be student feedback as this is

positive for physiology)

� note changes in staff have allowed merging of sections and � clinician

involvement in these courses

o currently catering for different contingencies!

� assessment

o cumulative for BOTH YEARS (second year professional exams includes material from

both years (~130 lectures/pracs)

o have choice in essay questions

� current topic of discussion within the physiology group with different views on

whether this should occur

� view on flexibility in the Program

o see problems with the introduction of this concept

o think graduates should be omnicompetent and should have sound grounding in all the

basic/core subjects

o doesn’t believe in specialization at this stage



o thinks electives would be divisive

� basically no particular weaknesses seen in the overall BVMS program

� have the staff to cover all the bases (referring to physiology here?)

� all the faculty involved in teaching are relatively omnicompetent – so could teach other

areas if need be

� students happy – no big grievances

� good reputation of the Faculty and the program

3. Issues - JLH:

� Year 2 exam is still comprehensive

o this is a LARGE amount of material to cover in one exam and would potentially

encourage surface and targeted learning of the material included in these courses

� although there appeared to be good integration of physiology with anatomy, and potentially

with other courses taught in the early years, the integration of material with clinical subjects

was not established

� interest in updating/teaching this course, or the program, in a different way?



Comparison between Faculties for total teaching of Anatomy, Histology & Physiology

GLASGOW SYDNEY VMRCVM

Lecture: 52 Lecture: 32 Lecture: 27 Anatomy &

Histology Lab: 103.5

Year 1

Semester 1 Lab/Tutorial: 49

Anatomy

Lab: 74

Lecture: 41 Lecture: 51 Lecture: 36

Year 1:

Terms

1, 2 & 3 Physiology

Lab: 12

Semester 2

Anatomy,

Physiology,

& Histology

Lab: 45

Physiology

Lab: 9

Lecture: 30 Histology

Lab: 30

Lecture: 14

Fall

Elective (Descriptive

Embryology) Lab: 0

TOTAL: 208.5 hours TOTAL: 177 hours TOTAL: 206 core + 14 elective hours

Lecture: 88.5 Lecture: 66 Lecture: 30 Anatomy &

Histology Lab: 162

Year 2

Semester 1

Anatomy,

Physiology Lab: 32

Anatomy

Lab: 64


Year 2

Physiology

Lab: 27

Equine

Anatomy Lab: 52

Physiology

Lab: 2

Lecture: 62 Lecture: 22 Semester 2 Anatomy,

Physiology Lab: 42

Neurobiology

Lab: 16

Lecture: 12

Spring

Elective (Reptile & Bird

Morphology Lab: 4

TOTAL: 334.5 hours TOTAL: 267 hours TOTAL: 193 core + 16 elective hours

GRAND TOTAL: 543 student contact hours GRAND TOTAL: 444 student contact hours GRAND TOTAL: 399 (+/- 30 elective) hours



Mapping of Course Content – Biomolecular Sciences 1 & 2

YEAR COURSE LECTURE AND LABORATORY CLASS TOPICS LECTURE LAB OTHER TOTAL

Introduction & Proteins 5

Enzymes 2

Cell Biology 5

Molecular Biology (DNA & RNA) 8

Central Pathways of Metabolism (Cellular Metabolism, Oxidative Phosphorylation) 7

Lipid & Ketone Body Metabolism 4

Nitrogen metabolism 3

Biochemistry of Digestion & Nutrition 6

Biochemistry of Blood 4

Cellular Signaling 4

Genetics 6

Concepts of Biostatistics 5

Labs: Electrophoresis; Alk Phosph; Computer Sessions (RASMOL; Gluconeogenesis) 6

Tutorials: Mol. Biology; Biostats & Proteins; Metabolism; Genetics; Nutrition 5

SDLA: ELA and course assessments 17

1 Vet.

Biomolecular

Sciences 1

TOTAL 61 6 27 94

Molecular aspects of Infectious Agents - Intro to Bacteria (3); Viruses (3); Parasites (3); 9

Integrated & Comparative Metabolism ?

Biochemical & Molecular Basis of Disease & in the Diagnosis of Disease (Cancer) 4

Immunology 10 3

Biotechnology in Diagnosis & Prevention of Veterinary Disease 7

Welfare & Ethics of Biotechnology 1

Tutorials; Bacteriology; Virology; Essay & Exam Skills; Exam feedback; Biotechnology;

Immunology; Revision – Metabolism; Molecular Biology

6

2 Vet.

Biomolecular

Sciences 2

TOTAL 37 3 6 46



1. Comparison of Teaching Time:

� Year 1: Biomolecular Sciences I

� Glasgow: (61 lectures; 6 hrs lab; 27 hrs tutorial) = 94 hrs total

� Sydney: Cell Biology 1A & 1B; 81 lectures; 34 hrs lab = 115hrs total

� VMRCVM: Biochemistry; 30 lectures; 0 lab = 30 hrs total.

� Note: Biochemistry and Chemistry are prerequisite courses for entry into the

DVM program.

� Year 2: Biomolecular Sciences II

� Glasgow: 37 lectures; 3 hrs lab; 6 hrs tutorial = 46 hrs total

� Sydney: Course is similar to Principles of Disease course (intro to pathology,

bacteriology, virology, parasitology & immunology); 61 hours lectures, 10 hours of lab =

71 hrs total

� VMRCVM does not have integrated course like this;

� Immunology - 27 lectures; 8 hours of laboratory (35 hrs total)

2. Discussion with Course Leader – Biomolecular Sciences 1 & 2 (Lesley Nicolson

accompanied by Collette Britton):

� good interactions between people teaching within the course (all the instructors in the course

meet once/term to discuss the course and ways to improve it)

� but these interactions do not occur with other courses in the year or program

� not quite sure what is being taught in other courses in Years 1 & 2

� concerned about the course being fragmented due to the large number of people teaching

within the course (12 core and a further 5tutorial staff)

� however, the timing and cohesion between 1 & 2 seems to be good; lead on well from one to

the other

� some of the material in the course is taught by clinicians (e.g., comparative metabolism);

however most of the lecturing staff are science based

� have not obtained feedback from later years to determine if students acquiring basic knowledge

and skills in this subject

� also don’t know if this is preparing for para-clinical subjects – though these are largely taught by

a similar cohort

� the split between pre-clinical and clinical years seems very apparent to this group and they

expressed an active concern about this

� expressed the view that they felt it would be good to have an educationalist to help them

develop/renew/change their courses

� they wondered if the students were being challenged sufficiently in their assessment tasks



� but recognized students are overloaded so harder to bring in more challenging

assessments

� having trouble dealing with assessment and where should be going

� currently use, MCQs etc

� aware of discussions about negative marking (stopped doing this!), T/F questions etc

� don’t norm reference the course, but quite a few students do fail (20% fail the class

exams and about 10-20/130 the professional exam and so have to do resit)

� were concerned they were over-assessing! and so dropped 2nd class exam

� thought the Self-Directed Learning Assignment was good

� students gave good presentations

� US students not as good at writing essays

� don’t really pick up students at risk – hard to detect!

3. Issues - JLH:

� integration of information with other courses and the relevance of the material made clear to

students?

� also students may potentially come into these courses with quite different backgrounds

� US students may have done quite a lot of Biochemistry etc in their undergraduate

degrees

� this may not be reflected in their marks due to the very different mechanisms of

assessment between the US (particularly undergraduate) and the UK

� amount of teaching time does not appear to be a concern in comparison to other veterinary

faculties (teaching quite a lot less than Sydney; harder to make the comparison with VMRCVM a

many of the topics included in this course are required as pre-requisites for entry into this

program e.g., biochemistry, organic chemistry etc).



Mapping of Course Content – Animal Husbandry 1 & 2

YEAR COURSE SUBSECTION LECTURE LAB OTHER TOTAL

Introduction 1

Genetics & Animal Breeding (cattle breeds & selection principles 1-2; repro. of

cattle; lambing class 1-2; ewe & lamb care 1-2; SA reproduction 1-2;)

9

Environment & Housing ( environment & housing 1-6; catteries & kennels – self

taught; )

6 4 1 11

Animal Nutrition (world food production & vets; UK farm production &

agronomy; cattle type assessment & condition scores; principles & science of

animal nutrition; feed materials for animals; equine feeding and pasture mgt)

4

Welfare, behavior, legislation & ethics (pig production & welfare video ; intro.

to welfare & ethics; welfare, legislation & transport I-2; SSPCA video)

5

Cattle husbandry (overview of cattle production ; cattle type assessment &

condition scores)

3 8 9

Sheep Husbandry (overview of sheep production - 2 hrs; sheep breeds I-2;

sheep production & management 1-7)

10 (?11) 4 14

Pig Husbandry (overview of pig production) 1

Deer & Goat Husbandry 0

Equine Studies (equine mgt & health 1-2; horse ageing) 3 4 7

Companion Animal Studies (pet bond & euthanasia 1-2; intro to SA medicine;

Small Animal Behavior 1-2)

5 4 9

Cage Pets & Laboratory Animals (1-4) 4

Poultry (poultry production 1-8) 8

Practical classes; horse handling; cattle restraint; sheep handling, dog & cat

handling; cattle condition scores; environmental assessment; lambing course

10

Others: Self Directed Learning; Tutorials; Library & IT 37

1 Veterinary

Animal

Husbandry 1

TOTAL 58 (?60) 34 38 132



YEAR COURSE SUBSECTION LECTURE LAB OTHER TOTAL

Introduction 1

Genetics & Animal Breeding (genetics & animal breeding 1-7) 7

Environment & Housing (grass conservation 1-2)

Animal Nutrition (Nutrition 1-3; macrominerals 1-2; trace elements 1-2; vitamins

& health 1-2), grass conservation 1-2

11

Welfare, behavior, legislation & ethics (intro to vet ethics; animal behavior &

welfare 1-2)

3

Cattle husbandry (dairy cow production, mgt & nutrition 1-5; calf housing; calf

rearing; beef production systems 1-5; dairy cow housing, mastitis and milking

machine, production disease)

20

Sheep Husbandry

Pig Husbandry (Pig production & mgt 1-4; pig housing 1-3) 7

Deer & Goat Husbandry (deer & goat husbandry) 1

Equine Studies (equine certification, legislation & insurance; equine dental care;

equine stud medicine; equine conformation & gait assessment; equine hoof care

and farriery;

6

Companion Animal Studies (quarantine & the dog & cat home; PET travel

schemes; dog & cat nutrition 1-2; Hills SA nutrition seminar;

7

Practical classes; milking and mastitis 1-3; genetics; dentistry & ageing;

assessment of the musculoskeletal system; physiology?; dairy farm visit;

metabolism & digestion animal lab; grass conservation & calf rearing

24

Others: dairy nutrition seminar; supplementation techniques demonstration;

beef cattle nutrition & management seminar; dairy cow nutrition demonstration;

20

2 Veterinary

Animal

Husbandry 2

56 24 20 100

Note: discrepancies between Course Information Document and timetables – so lectures/topics may not be exact




� Glasgow:

� Animal Husbandry 1; 60 lectures, 24 hours of lab, 38 hours of tutorials etc = 122 hours

� Animal Husbandry 2; 56 lectures, 24 hours of lab, 20 hours of tutorials etc = 100 hours

� TOTAL = 222 hours

� VMRCVM:

� Veterinary Large Animal Husbandry; 13 lectures, 8 hours of lab = 21 hours

� Veterinary Ethology; 15 lectures = 15 hours

� Clinical Techniques; 15 lectures, 30 hours of lab = 45 hours

� Fundamentals of Nutrition; 14 lectures, 2 hours of lab = 16 hours

� Veterinary Clinical Nutrition; 13 lectures, 4 hours of lab = 17 hours

� Fundamentals of Theriogenology; 26 lectures, 8 hours of lab = 34 hours

� Track/Electives

� Food Animal Nutrition; 26 lectures, 8 hours of lab = 34 hours

� Equine Nutrition; 12 lectures, 8 hours of lab = 20 hours

� Small Animal Nutrition; 13 lectures, 4 hours of lab = 17 hours

� FA Theriogenology; 20 lecture, 18 hours of lab = 38 hours

� Equine Theriogenology; 15 lectures = 15 hours

� Small Animal Theriogenology; 15 lectures = 15 hours

� Behavioral Medicine = 15 lectures

� TOTAL = 148 hours core; 154 hours elective

� Sydney:

� Animal Husbandry 1A; 43 lectures, 24 hours of lab = 67 hours

� Animal Husbandry 1B; 32 lectures, 60 hours of lab = 92 hours

� Genetics & Biometry; 52 lectures, 26 hours of lab = 78 hours

� Animal Digestion & Nutrition; 53 lectures, 13 hours of lab, 13 hours of tutorials = 79 hrs

� Animal Behavior and Welfare Science; 16 lectures, 26 hours of lab = 42 hours


2. Discussion with Course Leader – Animal Husbandry 1 & 2 (Jim Parkins)

� animal husbandry was one of the original 4 courses in the program!

� lot of what drives inclusion of topics are EAEVE requirements e.g. welfare, public health

� one of the strengths of the course is that it introduces a clinical approach early in the course;

also get to do animal handling



� some concerns have been expressed about the inclusion of husbandry (why do it) – but when

the final year students go out on the farms they can see the relevance (and this was echoed by

the students during their interview)

� see comment under JLH - Issues

� don’t have requirements to come into program with a specific skill set, but evidence of

motivation is considered in admissions applications

� however, there is a wide range of expertise and knowledge in the students – which makes

teaching more difficult

� often just demonstrating principles of safety to students!

� EMS is crucial, especially for students to develop hands on skills!

� the staff expressed concerns about assessment of technical skills obtained

during EMS - how does the faculty know they are competent during EMS as

they are not assessed on these during term time)

� the course is viewed as having husbandry overarching (umbrella) for the subjects, but then

broken up into its constituent parts (broken into individual components e.g. nutrition,

population medicine etc)

� Year 1 & 2 Animal Husbandry not really integrated – but did not think this was necessary

� also not integrated with other courses in Years 1 & 2 ?

� trying to focus on building a management course (i.e. teaching students to be managers) rather

than a “technical course”

� assessment

� Horse/Dog/Cat – OSCE type exam

� FA – on farm

� core team of lecturers

� should there be more?

� how do you deal with variable expectations/needs of students (some need more help)

� some clinical people teaching in the degree which has helped

� how to cut it? Or change the emphasis

� currently comfortable within the course

� issues as observed by Animal Husbandry staff:

� gender imbalance

� assessment (how to assess abilities)

� feedback and student evaluations

� what is driving curriculum change

3. Issues - JLH:

� the concern regarding the relevance of the topics expressed by students in early years

� try to find ways of demonstrating the relevance at time of teaching – will certainly

improve student engagement and learning



Mapping of Course Content – Veterinary Parasitology


Introduction to course 1

Nematodes (introduction; dog & cat – 3; filarial; cattle – 2; sheep – 2; pig; lungworm;

horse – 2) (Bird – student directed learning on Moodle)

13

Cestodes 2

Flukes 2

Zoonoses & Public Health 1

Anthelmintic Resistance 1

Protozoa (introduction; Eimeria/Isospora; Toxoplasma, Sarcocystis, Neospora;

Mastigophora (2);

7

Tick Borne Diseases 3

Flies 2

Mites (burrowing; non-burrowing) 2

Lice, Fleas 2

Practical Classes: Introduction; Nematodes (6); Cestodes; Flukes; Techniques; Coccida;

Mastigophora; Tickborne Disease; Flies; Mites/Lice/Fleas; Revision – 18 labs total

22

Tutorials 18

3 Veterinary

Parasitology

TOTAL 36 22 18 76




� Glasgow

� 3 lectures in Biomolecular Sciences 2

� 36 lectures; 22 hours of lab; 18 hours of tutorials = 76 hours


� VMRCVM:

� Parasitology – 30 lectures; 30 hrs lab = 60 hours

� Track/Elective

� Parasitology of Grazing Animals; 14 lectures; 2 hrs of lab = 16 hours

� Total = 60 hours core; 16 hours elective

� Sydney:

Parasitology: 39 lectures; 20 hours of lab; 6 hours of tutorials = 65 hours

Animal Disease: ~ 28 hours of parasitology (mixture lectures, labs, group work)

Total = 93 hours

2. Discussion with Course Leader – (Eileen Devaney)

� 4 parasitologists currently teach in this course – used to be 5 and will soon be 3 together with an

increased teaching load due to BSc(VetBiosciences)

� no longer have a veterinarian in teaching group

� facilities

� require practical sessions to be cut in 3 – therefore increased faculty time demands

� lack of specimen materials – so students have to spend quite a bit of time in queues.

� they are currently re-furbishing pre-clinical teaching laboratory which will help

� student evaluation of course is good

� JLH - got this feedback from students as well

� preferred way they taught anthelmintics than in pharmacology

� monitor course

� external examiner

� reviews assessment and how these are marked

� looks at statistics on MCQs

� focus group feedback – like these sessions and frequently use the feedback

� student evaluations

� staff evaluation (annual course monitoring document)

� assessment

� 2 x class (term) exams (5% each); MCQ and Practical Exam



� 1 x critical assessment exercise (5%)

� students put into 4 groups, given 2-3 papers to read; have to write a critique

(1500 – 2000 words)

� end of Course exam (85%); MCQ, essays and Practical Exam

� no longer has negative marking (saw marks �)

� some current discussion over oral examination (people sitting on the borderline who

may or may not be offered re-sits)

� issues with Program

� Year 3 too intense/heavy work load for students

� lack of interaction between instructors within the year

� thought idea of Year Teaching Groups was a good idea to find out what others

are doing and also potentially reach consensus on focus for year

� this was reflected in a lack of horizontal integration e.g., pharmacology within the

parasitology course

� noted that it was/would be difficult to focus faculty on the Curriculum Review as:

� funding cuts

� University restructure

� how to juggle all University requirements for the faculty (i.e. teaching, research

and clinics)

� inadequate resourcing of both teaching and research by University – and now

the University is restructuring to � research output – but have to invest not

just restructure!

� but did recognize need for new curriculum, partly to continue to attract good students – as

there would be more competition for these

� noted that being a Course Leader was a lot of work!

� how to Set Glasgow Apart

� electives?

� strength in Infectious Disease Research

� student know about this research

� intercalated year becoming increasingly popular

� welcome PhD’s

3. Issues - JLH:

� comparison of Teaching Time – approximately the same for the three Universities

� veterinarian involved with teaching? An issue?

� topics appear appropriate – but how is information presented - ? clinical context

� integration into later years of the information presented?

� application/relevance for students – how is this shown???

� however, student evaluations/feedback appears to be good



Mapping of Course Content – Veterinary Microbiology


Introduction to course and concepts (host defenses; bacterial pathogenesis;

antimicrobial action & resistance)

4

Staphs & Streps 1

Clostridia & Bacillus 1

Mycobacteria 1

Gram + rods 1

Pasteurellaceae 1

Enterobacteriaceae 2.5

Pseudomonas 0.5

Spiral bacteria and small gram – bacteria 2

Fungi 1

Anaerobes 1

Obligate intracellular organisms & Mycoplasma 2

Related topics (epidemiology of bacterial infections; bacterial vaccines; bacterial

serology; intercalated degree program)

4

DNA viruses (circo, parvo, adeno, asfar, pox, papilla, herpes) 4

RNA viruses (picorna, calici, reo, nirna, flavi, toga, orthomyxo, paramyxo, rhabdo, nido,

corona, arteri, retro)

6

Related topics (viral vaccines; diagnosis – 2; recovery from viral infections) 4

Spongiform Encephalopathies 1 (15/21)

Epidemiology & Control (Introduction; modeling for disease control; control of infectious

diseases; antimicrobials in disease control)

4 (7)

Public Health (PH 1&2; Food technology) 3 (9)

Practical Classes (??? What these are – bacteriology, virology, Epi, P/H) 26.75

3 Veterinary

Parasitology

TOTAL 58.5 26.75 85.25




� Glasgow:

� Bacteriology & Virology in Biomedical Sciences 2; 8 lectures = 8 hours

� Bacteriology & Virology; 42 hrs lectures, 18.75 hours lab = 60.75 hours

� Epidemiology & Public Health; 16.5 lectures, 8 hours of lab = 24.5 hours

� TOTAL = 93.25 hours

� Virginia Tech:

� Veterinary Bacteriology & Mycology; 52 lectures, 16 hours of lab = 68 hours

� Veterinary Virology; 30 lectures = 30 hours

� Epidemiology; 30 lectures = 30 hours

� Veterinary Public Health; 14 lectures, 2 hours of lab = 16 hours

� Track/Electives

� Advanced Epidemiology; 30 lectures = 30 hours

� Advanced Public Health; 15 lectures = 15 hours

� Food Animal Product Safety for Veterinarians; 30 lecture = 30 hours

� Emerging Infectious Diseases 1 & 2; 30 lectures = 30 hours

� Emerging & Exotic Diseases of Animals; 15 lectures = 15 hours


� Sydney:

� Bacteriology & Virology in Principles of Disease (16 lectures; 6 hrs lab – 22 total)

� Bacteriology & Virology – 50 lectures; 9 hrs lab; 6 hrs tutorials (65hrs total)

� Bacteriology & Virology in Animal Disease – lectures, lab and group work (55 total)

� Public Health & Epidemiology – 36 lectures; 8 hrs lab; 8 hrs tutorials (52 hrs total)

� TOTAL = 194 hours core

2. Discussion with Course Leader – (Mark Roberts, accompanied by Lesley Nicolson

pp Paul Everest)

� all of the teaching occurs in the first two terms (pushed into these recently) – used to be three

(now term 3 is very attenuated and focuses on revision/assessment)

� have � contact time with students 16% since 1983

� although taught in Year 3, introduction to infectious agents occurs in Biomedical Sciences 2 (see

above)

� the infectious agents are also re-iterated in Year 4 and brought together in medicine courses

(this is what they thought occurred – but were not involved in teaching in later years)



� so do have some vertical integration of this topic through the curriculum (see JLH comment

later)

� facilities

o laboratory space too small therefore have to do all classes twice

� really 60 students are the maximum numbers but some years there are 65 (130

in the year) due to the bounce with repeating students

o too many student in the one lab for people who are assisting in the practical classes

� try to schedule 2 faculty, 2 staff, but often only 2-3 people total are there

o students really value these laboratory classes, but problematic for faculty due to time

commitment (but they enjoy them due to closer/direct contact with students)

o students do have some lectures on main campus, and some of the faculty have to teach

on main campus – however, it is ½ - ¾ hr drive and parking is impossible – making it very

difficult to timetable these and unpleasant when have to go there

� the students are required to go to main campus as the University wants to have

some integration of the veterinary students with the rest of the University

� due to the parking issue, they tend to timetable students for all day if they have

to go to main campus – but Faculty don’t get this luxury!

o another reason teaching on the main campus is required is that facilities at Garscube

now at maximum and with increased students numbers are really overloaded (especially

with second degree)

� are planning 2 new lecture theatres on Garscube which should help

� issues noted by course leader(s)

o Epidemiology/Public Health also included in this course

� sort of stuck on the end of this course

� taught by an external person who is not involved in examination of the

students? (Dom Mellor has to mark essays) ? problem

� this subject also taught in Year IV

o staffing

� recent retirement of faculty, including the veterinarian, has left a large hole in

this group, especially with relation to putting subject into context for students

(case-based etc) – don’t think he is being replaced

• this issue was also noted recently by the external examiner

� also now down to 1 virologist (who teaches) and 1 who helps with diagnostics

and practical classes

� now also teaching the BSc(VetBioscience) and within the MPH degree and so

some of the faculty are double time-tabled at times

• although there are new positions to teach the Veterinary Bioscience

program – the course leader(s) did not know if these were going to be

employed in the area of microbiology or in other areas



� have little interaction with clinicians – and so not getting direction from this

group or feedback on material that is included in the courses

o assessment

� as for other courses with two class exams which involve MCQs, practical exam,

data analysis (15% total) and a final professional Exam (MCQ, essay and

practical exam - 85% total)

o evaluation of Course:


• do this in the practical exam – and so get good compliance (see student

comments on this)

• in general have good feedback for this course; the practical classes in

particular are popular; core lectures also score well

• do act on students comments/negative feedback to improve the course

and do distribute the results amongst the lecturers involved who teach

� Focus Groups

• not very useful (this differed from other course leaders perspective)

• good to have a chat, but often not many students turn up, and just an

opportunity to moan

• better if the course representative has canvassed the opinion of the

other students

� annual Course Monitoring Report

� Staff-Student Liaison Committee

• good for global issues

� future directions for Program

o group felt they were currently teaching the “wrong” way (program not the course)

o should use the clinical material to “hook” the students into the program earlier

o staff not encouraged to introduce clinical material in earlier years – used to be but

changed ?

o development of on-line materials e.g. microscopy for practical classes; on-line virology

practical class – interpretation of tests – could be done in the lecture theatre; help with

consistency of materials in practical classes and also help the squeeze in current

facilities

3. Issues - JLH:

� Course Information Document – 21 lectures in bacteriology; 21 lectures in virology (??? Where

these are – especially virology)?

� 1 hour on mycology!!! (and 1 practical class) – is this sufficient?



� � contact time with students 16% since 1983 – was this based on real need to decrease this

subject or perceived as not relevant (way it was taught) therefore decreased its importance

o significantly less time spent on this subject in Glasgow than in other veterinary faculties

(see page 28)

� although some vertical integration of this subject is occurring (see above) this could be extended

o e.g., infectious disease curriculum at the University of Sydney is taught over three years,

o the final course integrates bacteriology, mycology, virology, pathology and to lesser

extent clinical pathology and is taught using a case-based approach

� does not appear to be a veterinarian in this group (who is actively involved in teaching or

planning curriculum) and this is problematic for the group as they don’t feel they have someone

to help with relevance/clinical aspects of the course

o group was worried about this



Mapping of Course Content – Veterinary Pathology


Cytopathology 5

Inflammation 4

Immunopathology 3

Specimen description, sample collection 2

Circulation 2

Neoplasia 4

Lymphoid Tissues (LN, thymus, spleen) 3

Blood, Bone Marrow 4

Cardiovascular 4

Urinary 5

Respiratory System 4

Skin/ears 4

Alimentary & Liver 9

Pancreas 1

Endocrine 4

Locomotor 4

Reproduction 4

Practical Classes – Macroscopic - Using the microscope, Body Fluids 1&2; Cytopathology;

Degeneration & Pigmentation; Causes of Inflammation, Acute Inflammation, Chronic

Inflammation; Neoplasia 1&2; Hematology 1&2; Urinary; Respiratory; Skin; Alimentary;

34.5

Clinical Pathology 8

Practical Classes – Histopathology (topics as above) 55

Clinical Pathology Practical Classes: cytology – skin/ears; blood smears; urinalysis; (4)

3 Veterinary

Pathology

79 89.5 168.5




� Glasgow:

� Pathology Course; 79 lectures, 89.5 hours of lab = 168.5

� TOTAL = 168.5hours

� VMRCVM:

� Veterinary Pathology 1; 30 lectures, 30 hours of lab = 60 hours

� Veterinary Pathology 2; 38 lectures, 14 hours of lab = 52 hours

� Clinical Pathology; 39 lectures, 12 hours of lab = 51 hours total

� Track/Electives

� Reproductive Pathology; 15 lectures = 15 hours

� Advanced Histopathology; 30 hours of lab = 30 hours

� Topics in Lab Animal Pathology; 15 lectures = 15 hours

� Veterinary Cytopathology; 14 lectures 2 hours of lab = 16 hours

� TOTAL = 112 (+ 51 Clin Path) hours core; 76 hours elective

� Sydney:

� Principles of Disease; pathology hours - ~31 hours lecture, 6 hours of lab = 37 hours

� Pathology; 54 lectures, 26 hours of lab, 28 hours group work/tutorials = 108 hours

� Animal Disease; ~ 27 hours of lectures, lab and group work

� Clinical Pathology; 25 lectures; 9 hours of lab; 5 hours tutorials

� TOTAL = 172 (+ 39 Clin Path) hours core

2. Discussion with Course Leader – (Pamela Johnston)

� pathology has been taught the same way for quite some time (20 odd years!)

o taught so that general pathology is covered first and then go through systematic

pathology

� this has been changed recently (see later)

� Lab classes split into histopathology and gross pathology (class is split into 2), and also have

some clin path labs (split into 8!)

o in lab classes have 1 faculty, resident and a senior technician

o in some PM practical classes can have 1 faculty for up to 30 students

� it is planned that from 2010-11 Year 5 students will have a pathology rotation– in the PM room

o focused on sample preparation and PM technique

� assessment

o multiple assessment within both term 1 and term 2 (MCQ, open book essay, essays,

practical exams etc) all add up to 15%



o degree (professional) exam – 85%

� issues - Personnel

o 3.8 pathologists

o staff also have a significant diagnostic load and an imperative to make this pay – so

being stretched

o � student numbers and � faculty numbers are causing significant imposts on

� Curriculum Review – Pathology – already started!

o felt that they were over-teaching in pathology

o consistent theme is to � histopathology and � clinical pathology and relevance

o so currently undergoing significant review of this course (only course to really do so in

the program)

� propose to teach in a mechanistic way (as opposed to systematic pathology as

described above)

� encouraging students to be able to generate differential diagnoses from first

principles and get away from rote learning

� review based on feedback from older students and clinicians

• found there was a lot of repetition in Year 4 CIC course (LA) – probably

because of way these courses were taught originally when pathology

was heavily integrated with LA medicine/surgery

� will be decreasing histopathology to what is considered essential and also

emphasizing clinical path and specimen description

o this review has caused divisions within the pathology group, but several members of this

group are close to retirement

� being driven by a new member of Faculty

o have also had this new course reviewed by the external examiner

� felt the course was an improvement and was positive about the change

� but there was some concern by the external examiner that the students would

not be ready to do boards! (some confusion by the external examiner as to what

Day 1 competencies are in this area!)

� issues with Program

o students are “brain dead” by time they get to year 3!

o current curriculum is not developing life-long learners or problem solvers

o over teaching in a number of courses (including pathology?)

o need to make program more cohesive – currently feels like a series of courses

o lot of repetition in the program

o don’t really know what is taught in other courses

� note the pathology group have printed SA class notes to see what they are

teaching – but agree that this is still a bit piecemeal and need to do this more

exhaustively and have all the teaching staff involved



3. Issues - JLH:

� contact time with students � 16% since 1983 – was this based on real need to decrease this

subject or perceived as not relevant (way it was taught) therefore decreased its importance (as

with microbiology)

� would argue that this course, especially if integrated with other para-clinical/clinical courses

should maintain its current emphasis/importance

� excellent that this course has progressed with a review, and their proposed new course appears

appropriate

o most important thing is that a review has been conducted and the way forward has

been embraced by the faculty who will be teaching this

o also has to be sustainable



Mapping of Course Content – Veterinary Pharmacology


Drug Action ?

Pharmacy and Legislation ?

Systems Pharmacology ?

Anaesthesia and Analgesia ?

Parasiticides ?

Antimicrobials ?

Toxicology ?

Alternative ?

3 Veterinary

Pharmacology

63 21 32 116

� Pharmacology has developed their own Moodle site (within the overall Moodle framework)

o I had a brief look at this site whilst visiting the faculty and it appeared to have a better educational framework than the other

Moodle sites; was developed with the help of an IT/educationalist

� however, I could not get access to this site once I had left Glasgow (it was locked) and so could not determine the specific times

allocated to the broad subject areas outlined above




� Glasgow:

� Pharmacology Course; 63 lectures, 21 hours of lab, 32 hours of tutorials; 116 hours


� VMRCVM:

� Fundamentals of Veterinary Pharmacology; 40 lectures, 10 hours of lab = 50 hours

� Veterinary Toxicology; 25 lectures, 10 hours of lab = 35 hours

� Clinical Pharmacology; 23 lectures, 8 hours of lab = 31 hours

� Track/Electives

� Pharmacological Topics; 14 lectures = 14 hours

� Medical Toxicology; 30 lectures = 30 hours

� Toxicology of Poisonous Plants; 11 lectures, 8 hours of lab = 19 hours


� Sydney:

� Veterinary Pharmacology; 30 lectures, 22 hours of tutorial = 52 hours


2. Discussion with Course Leader – (Karen MacEachern, Fiona Dowell, Jane

Robinson)

� currently have issues with this course as not seen as relevant by the students and do not arrive

in final years with good ability to apply knowledge

� have � the number of lectures to 59 (above as 63???) – but administration wants to � this to

49

� currently course includes both basic pharmacology and clinical pharmacology

o issues with relevance of the basic pharmacology and its application to clinical medicine

� to try to demonstrate relevance have Case of the Week with cased-based

scenarios

� these are well received by the students, but are also quite challenging so they

take up quite a bit of their time

� laboratory classes focus on drug calculations

� assessment

o historically students find this course difficult

o have changed assessments recently to take away negative marking and T/F exams

o still, a substantial number of students fail this course every year (~50 do resits and

~20/year fail 3rd year outright!)



o the core pharmacology knowledge is assessed in exams, therapeutics and drug

calculations assessed through their work books

o the in-class exams only test what they have covered in the teaching block preceding the

exam

� these involve MCQs, short questions and essays

o there is also a group based library project worth 5% of their marks

o usual distribution – all assessments during Terms 1 & 2 = 15% and the final exam is

comprehensive and worth 85%

o good individual feedback to students on each of their papers and also have a class

feedback session after the exams

o do have a summer session for failed students (before resits???) and they are given

feedback on all their assessments


o see student report

� personnel

o staff are predominantly non-veterinarian and includes a pharmacologist by training

o increase teaching load with the BSc(VetBiosci) has added an additional impost on faculty

for teaching

3. Issues - JLH:

� may be good to divide Pharmacology into 2 course (as at VT) – separate theory from clinical

application (therapeutics)

� can give theory earlier e.g. Year 2 and clinical applications later e.g. Year 3 or 4

� at Sydney, they include clinical applications (therapeutics) in medicine courses – but this does

not work as well as having a separate course (in my opinion and impression of a clinician

teaching at both Universities)

o instructor teaching pharmacology at Sydney did not feel the integration of therapeutics

in the medicine courses was very good and students did not develop a good

understanding of drug applications and uses

� another advantage of teaching therapeutics later is that it is more relevant for the students as

tied in with what they are learning in medicine and so they are more interested

� clearly there are divisions in this group as to what should be taught and how it should be taught

o there has been a recent push to increase its relevance for vet students and to teach

more focused on therapeutics – this has been well received by the students and also the

clinicians (however concerns were still raised by other staff that students were arriving

in their clinical years and did not know how to apply their pharmacological knowledge

(e.g., “the students don’t know which antibiotic would be effective for a cow with

respiratory disease”)



o some of the staff were worried about “dumbing” down the course by focusing less on

the pharmacological theory, making assessment easier, and just emphasizing which

drugs to use rather than training veterinarians who understand pharmacology and can

apply pharmacological principles and know which drugs are appropriate to use and why

Potential Gaps in Curriculum at GUVS in Pre- and Para-Clinical Years (1-3)

All veterinary faculties have some courses which are taught at other faculties and are not taught at their

own (or are integrated into specific courses). Some of the courses taught at Sydney and VMRCVM and

which do not appear to be taught at GUVS include:

SYDNEY UNIVERSITY

� Conservation Biology; 37 lectures, 20 hours of lab = 57 hours

� Professional Practice

o This is a suite of courses taught through years 1-3

� Professional Practice 1A; 13 lectures, 26 hours of workshops = 39 hours

� Professional Practice 1B; 7 lectures, 14 hours of workshops, 12 hours of visits to

Educational Support Practices (ESP) = 33 hours

� Professional Practice 2; 12 hours workshops, 8 hours of visits to ESP, 24 hours of

Independent Learning project = 44 hours

� Professional Practice 3; 13 lectures, 26 hours of lab, 11 hours presentations = 50

hours


VMRCVM

� Professional Studies

o This is a suite of courses taught through years 1-3

� Professional Foundations; 30 lectures = 30 hours

� Veterinary Business Management; 15 lectures = 15 hours

� Client Communication Skill = 5 lectures, 20 hours of lab = 25 hours

� Veterinary Career Development; 14 lectures, 2 hours of lab = 16 hours

� Introduction to Clinics; 1 lectures, 28 hours of lab = 29 hours


� Track/Electives

o Animal Domestication and Genetic Reservoirs; 15 lectures = 15 hours

o Clinical Perspectives (Year 1) = 15 lectures = 15 hours

o Introduction to Clinical Research; 30 lectures = 30 hours

o Morphology and Natural History of Mammals; 28 lectures, 4 hours of lab = 32 hours

o Animals and Public Policy; 15 lectures = 15 hours

o Veterinary Public Policy; 15 lectures = 15 hours

o TOTAL = 122 hours



Mapping of Course Content – Combined Integrated Course


Bovine 23

Small Ruminants: Sheep and Goats 8

Camelids 1

Deer 1

Pigs 8

Poultry 4

Fish 1

Veterinary Public Health 16

Practical Classes; Ruminants clinical exam, lameness exam, VPH lab, Pigs Clinical Exam,

Pigs PM Technique, haptic cow

26

Tutorial; economics of farm animals; clinicopathological case demonstrations 42

4 Combined

Integrated

Course (CIC)

174 (62?) 26 42 242

� I don’t know where the 174 lectures are?

o in the Course Information Document it outlined the 62 lectures above




� Glasgow:

� Combined Integrated Course (Large Animals); 174 lectures, 26 hours of lab, 42 hours of

tutorials, self directed learning and course assessment = 242 hours


� VMRCVM:

� difficult to compare as core topics for production animal species (medicine & surgery)

are taught on a systems basis (same way as in CAS) together with companion animal

species

� for outline of the hours involved in teaching systems courses see page 46

� for overall comparison with Year 4 courses see page 47

� more advanced topics on Production Animal species are taught as track/elective courses

(see below)

� Public Health and Advanced Public Health courses already shown under Veterinary

Microbiology

� might want to pull these specific topics out to make a comparison

� Track/Electives

� Food Animal Medicine & Surgery 1; 40 lectures; 10 hours of lab = 50 hours

� Food Animal Medicine & Surgery 2; 22 lectures; 16 hours of lab = 38 hours

� Food Animal Clinical Problem Solving; 30 lectures = 30 hours

� Food Animal Theriogenology; 20 lectures; 18 hours of lab = 38 hours

� Aquatic Medicine & Fish Health; 24 lectures, 8 hours of lab = 32 hours

� Diseases of Poultry; 28 lectures, 4 hours of lab = 32 hours

� Goat & Sheep Medicine; 15 lectures = 15 hours

� TOTAL = 468 hours core (includes SA); 235 hours track/elective (FA only)

� Sydney:

� again a little difficult to compare as some of the material covered in this CIC are covered

in other courses in Sydney (e.g., Veterinary Surgery, Veterinary Radiology etc)

� specific Production Animal Courses

� Bird Health & Production; 24 lectures, 28 hours of lab = 52 hours

� Pig Health & Production; 40 lectures, 16 hours of lab, 16 hours of environmental

audits = 72 hours

� Ruminant Health & Production; 58 lectures, 85 hours of lab, 12 hours of

tutorials = 155 hours

� TOTAL = 279 hours core



2. Discussion with Course Leader – (Thomas Wittek)

� large number of lectures in this course (mild understatement!!!) but forms the basis for final

year teaching – so do need to teach a lot!

� do also do some practical training

o Clinical skills

o Public Health

o use models for some of the practical classes (e.g., Haptic Cow and Breeding Betsy)

� their value is a bit dependent on the student; students who have trouble

visualizing what they are palpating – these are good

� less valuable for students who have done a lot of palpations

o also use the clinical skills lab

� there are many lecturers (~25) in the course (with this number of lectures not surprising)

o do have guest lecturers for a number of the specific topics (deer, poultry, camelids, fish)

o also lecturers from other areas give lectures (e.g., pathologists, microbiologists etc)

� assessment

o no in-class exams – just one 100% exam course exam!!!

o MCQs, some T/F, essays (with choice – but have been asked by the external examiner to

decrease this choice), practical exam (for P/H – mostly abattoir specimens)

� staff/personnel

o can be difficult to schedule at times as clinicians involved in teaching and they are also

teaching the final year students at the same time

o different teachers have different approaches to lectures – so there may not be a

common theme in the way it is taught

� strengths & weaknesses

o very broad course and covers a variety of species and is comprehensive, so does

introduce the material needed for final year (good basis for Year 5)

o reasonably good alignment between medicine, Public Health component and practical

classes (as much as possible)

o but is a LARGE course – very dense and large volume of information compressed into it

� this has arisen historically when combined a number of smaller courses into the

one large course it is today

o try to tie into what is occurring with the clinics (and final year students) as much as

possible e.g., farm visits, PM demonstrations

� try to combine the clinical examination training – if the animal then dies take it

to PM – so links in with pathology

� this was one of the historical drivers for the “integration” aspect of this course,

but it has decreased over time (though still try to do it as much as possible)

o big gap between end of the course and the start of final year – especially if the students

don’t have a LA focus – so can be difficult for students to recall the information taught



o feel that a strength of the Glasgow program is the practical teaching – not that different

from other courses in knowledge transfer, but the practical side is good

o they have a good case load – so can also show the students a good range of clinical

cases in both Years 4 and 5 (better in Year 5 – more limited in Year 4)

o the curricula in the UK are less regulated than in Europe – where curricula are often

dictated!

� curriculum review

o think the review should be “evolution” not “revolution”, but can see a need for review

o currently in Germany, curriculum review is being driven by saving money!!!

3. Issues - JLH:

� the size of the course makes it very large and somewhat unwieldy

� the number of lectures to laboratory/practical class hours is high (compare to other universities)

o may want to decrease the amount of time in lectures and increase the amount of time

in labs

o though this does have cost implications – both financial and for staff teaching load

o also, course leader noted that he felt a strength of the program was the good practical

skills the students gained in this area - ? is this in comparison to students in Europe (who

do get very little practical teaching or to other UK/US/Australasian faculties?)

� many staff involved and so hard, but not impossible, to have common “themes” in teaching and

get cohesion between different parts of the course and the material delivered

o it might help if had suggested “templates” for approach to teaching the course

� a big positive that the case load remains good in this area (certainly not the situation at all

veterinary schools)

� there seems to be good linkages between the material taught in Year 4 and their final year

� for further comments on general issues for Year 4 – see under Companion Animal Science



Mapping of Course Content – Veterinary Companion Animal Science


Unit 1 – Ethics, Jurisprudence & Communication Skills (? In Year 4 or taught in other yrs)

Unit 2 – Behavior

Unit 3 – Surgical Principles

Unit 4 – Anesthesia

Unit 5 – Diagnostic Imaging

Unit 6 – Emergency and Critical Care

Unit 7 – Infectious Diseases

Unit 8 – Alimentary Disorders

Unit 9 – Orthopedic Disorders

Unit 10 – Neurological Disorders

Unit 11 – Hematopoietic and Lymphoreticular Disorders

Unit 12 – Oncological Medicine and Surgery

Unit 13 – Endocrine Disorders

Unit 14 – Ophthalmology

Unit 15 – Urogenital Disorders

Unit 16 – Cardiorespiratory Disorders

Unit 17 – Skin Disorders

Unit 18 – Stud Medicine & Pediatrics

Unit 19 – Birds as Companions

Unit 20 – Small Mammals

Clinical Skills/Problem Solving; Clinical Cases of the week 88

VILA = Veterinary Individual Learning Assignment 6

Self Instruction 14

4 Veterinary

Companion

Animal

Science (CAS)

200 88 20 308

� note Course Information Document table of course instruction – total hours = 280 and also different number of hours in AVMA

document (=362hrs) may have cut more hours recently




� Glasgow:

� Companion Animal Sciences; 200 lectures, 88 hours of clinical skills/clinical cases, 20

hours of self directed learning and assessment (VILA) = 308 hours


� VMRCVM:

� difficult to compare as core topics for production animal species (medicine & surgery)

are included in the courses taught on a systems basis (same as in CAS)

� for overall comparison with Year 4 courses see table on page 47

� more advanced topics on Companion Animal species are taught as track/elective

courses (see below)

� Core Courses by Systems:

� Musculoskeletal; 42 lectures; 6 hours of lab = 48 hours

� Anesthesia; 25 lectures; 10 hours of lab = 35 hours

� Cardiorespiratory; 40 lectures; 10 hours of lab = 50 hours

� Veterinary Medicine; 14 lectures; 2 hours of lab = 16 hours

� Surgery Principles & Practice; 22 lectures; 44 hours of lab = 66 hours

� Gastro-enterology; 54 lectures; 12 hours of lab = 66 hours

� Neurology; 28 lectures; 4 hours of lab = 32 hours

� Ophthalmology; 14 lectures; 2 hours of lab = 16 hours

� Communications: 5 lectures; 20 hours of lab = 25 hours

� Dermatology & Endocrinology; 30 lectures; 14 hours of lab = 45 hours

� Veterinary Hemolymphatics; 25 lectures; 10 hours of lab = 35 hours

� Urology; 26 lectures; 8 hours of lab = 34 hours

� Track/Electives

� SA Theriogenology; 15 lectures = 15 hours

� SA Medicine 1; 15 lectures = 15 hours



� SA Clinical Problem Solving; 28 lectures = 28 hours

� Advanced SA Surgery; 29 lectures = 29 hours

� Advanced SA Surgery Lab; 1 lecture; 28 hours of lab = 29 hours

� Advanced SA Clinical Techniques; 9 lectures; 12 hours of lab = 21 hours

� Advanced Veterinary Cardiology; 13 lectures; 4 hours of lab = 17 hours

� SA Emergency Medicine; 15 lectures = 15 hours

� Behavioral Medicine; 15 lectures = 15 hours

� Veterinary Oncology; 28 lectures; 2 hours of lab = 30 hours

� Equine Medicine & Surgery 1; 41 lectures; 12 hours of lab = 53 hours



� Equine Medicine & Surgery 2; 36 lectures; 20 hours of lab = 56 hours

� Equine Clinical Problem Solving; 30 lectures = 30 hours

� Equine Theriogenology; 15 lectures = 15 hours

� Equine Theriogenology II; 7 lectures; 16 hours of lab = 23 hours

� Equine Neonatology and Pediatrics; 15 lectures

� Complementary Medicine; 13 lectures; 2 hours of lab = 15 hours

� Wildlife Medicine; 13 lectures; 2 hours of lab = 15 hours

� Pocket Pets and Exotic Animal Medicine; 14 lectures; 2 hours of lab = 16 hours

� Ferret Medicine and Surgery; 14 lectures; 2 hours of lab = 16 hours

� TOTAL = 468 hours core; 498 hours track/elective

� Sydney:

� Specific Small Animal Courses

� Animal Behavior & Welfare Science; 16 lectures; 26 hours of lab = 42 hours

� Veterinary Clinical Sciences 3 (SA only); 78 lectures; 18 hours of lab/tutorial = 96

hrs

� Horse Medicine & Surgery; 36 lectures; 64 hours of lab/tutorial = 100 hours

� Anesthesia; 24 lectures; 16 hours of lab/tutorials = 40 hours

� Medicine and Clin Path (SA only); 61 lectures; 43 hours of labs/tutorial = 104 hrs

� Veterinary Radiology; 26 lectures = 26 hours

� Veterinary Surgery; 44 lectures; 24 hours of lab = 68 hours


Comparison between Faculties for total teaching of Clinical Sciences

GLASGOW SYDNEY VIRGINIA TECH


Lab: 88 Lab: 143

Companion

Animal Core1 Lab: 142

Lecture: 368

CAS

Other: 20

Companion

Animal

Other: 74 Companion

Animal

Elective

Lab: 102

Total 308 Total 502 Total 927


Lab: 26 Lab: 129

Food Animal

Core1 Lab: 142

Lecture: 179

Year 4:

Terms

1, 2 & 3

CIC

Other: 42

Years

3 & 4

Large

Animal

Other: 28

Semesters

4, 5 & 6

Food Animal

Elective Lab: 56

Total 242 Total 279 Total 692

GRAND TOTAL: 550 student

contact hours

GRAND TOTAL: 781 student

contact hours

GRAND TOTAL: 457 core contact hrs

+/- 470 companion & 235 FA track hrs)



1 same number of core lectures/labs for Companion and Food Animal as these species taught together in

systems courses at VT



2. Discussion with Course Leader – (Martin Sullivan)

� put his head above the parapet a number of times to change the curriculum!

� 12-13 years ago – changed small animal courses taught in Year 4 – combined the three courses

and axed 90 lectures! (= Companion Animal Sciences)

� views on Curriculum Review

o cannot afford to do double teaching

o � resources are a problem for introducing a new curriculum

o needs Dean’s support

o had an earlier proposal

� � number of courses (and course leaders!)

• Biomedical Sciences & Anatomy

• Pathological Sciences

• Clinical Sciences

� have horizontal integration of these 3-4 major courses/themes

� � number of lectures/labs (wanted a lean curriculum!)

� � teaching in Year 3 – too much currently

� improve integration – currently dislocation!

o would like students to “know less but know it better”

o think that current focus on certain subjects is not appropriate

� 2 weeks (20 hrs) for orthopedic disorders of SAs and horses

� 16 weeks for skeleton in anatomy (?)

� assessment has recently been changed for CAS

o no negative marking

o no T/F only exams

o added OSCEs

� now have 31 OSCEs

� also have formative 5 OSCEs (mock exams)

o exit exam in SA – OSCEs (in LA long case reviews)

o also have introduced a Veterinary Individual Learning Assignment (VILA) – to encourage

group learning and critical thinking in a clinical context

o think assessment for CAS is going well and promoting demonstration of both clinical

competence and also critical thinking in companion animal medicine and surgery



3. Issues for Year 4 - JLH:

� the material covered in both CAS and CIS appears to be appropriate and well received

� however, there is a large amount of material presented in one year, and it is presented in a very

lecture dense format (i.e. lecture:lab ration is high – many long hours spent in the lecture

theatre)

� one reason for the large amount of material presented in Year 4 is to play “catch up” and to

provide students with the knowledge and skills required for their veterinary training and which

they have not yet received in their earlier courses

o this is linked with the concern that too much emphasis in the curriculum is currently

being placed on pre-clinical material, and this is taking up too much time

o and this is exacerbated by the lack of integration between the clinical and pre-clinical

and para-clinical subjects

� despite the large amount of material presented in Year 4, there is overall significantly less

clinical material presented within the curriculum at GUVS than at the other comparison

veterinary faculties

o for example there is ~550 student contact hours for teaching of clinical materials at

GUVS, 781 student contact hours at Sydney, and either 927 potential contact hours for

Small Animal/Equine focused students and 692 for Food Animal focused students at

VMRCVM

o the increased exposure of students at Sydney and VMRCM to clinical material is possible

as the clinical courses are introduced earlier in these institutions (e.g., year 3 at Sydney;

year 2 semester 4 at VMRCVM)

o at GUVS some clinical material may be taught within the earlier courses, but I could not

really see this with the broad curriculum mapping that was done

� would be able to determine this with a more detailed curriculum map

o however, by putting these topics into other courses, their clinical impact/relevance may

currently be lost as a common concern, from both students and staff, was the lack of

clinical relevance of the earlier courses

� in addition, this relatively small amount of time for clinical teaching does not allow more in-

depth coverage of some subjects, which appear to be “light” in the current GUVS curriculum

(e.g., theriogenology/animal breeding, nutrition, equine musculoskeletal disorders) nor does it

allow potential coverage of some elective material e.g., pocket pets/exotics

o a more in-depth curriculum map, including all years of the program, would be needed to

identify all the topics that were potential deficiencies



Year 5 Teaching Program

1. Mapping of Course Content

� the Year 5 program is taught within 2 courses; Small Animal Clinical Studies and Large Animal

Clinical Studies

o small animal clinical studies involves rotations through anesthesia, neurology, dog trust

and PDSA, internal medicine (incl. cardiology and critical care), surgery, oncology,

diagnostic imaging, specialist I (dermatology, exotics, ethics) and specialist II

(ophthalmology) and hospital care nights

o large animal clinical studies includes learning time for farm animals, horses and public

health/food hygiene/epidemiology

� students must undertake a 4 week core course and then may take either:

• farm animal track (2 weeks Garscube, 2 weeks Clyde vet group, 2 weeks

FA project, 2 weeks Population Medicine and epidemiology

• equine track (2 x 4 weeks at Weiper’s Center or 1 x 4 weeks at Weepers

+ 1 x 4 week externship at equine hospital)

� note: this is the ONLY choice students have within the curriculum and could be

considered a very minor form of “tracking”

� both these courses run during the entire year and are effectively lecture free

o however there are many small group tutorials, practical classes, clinical rounds, and case

discussions included in both courses

� in addition to these internal courses, students must continue with their Extra Mural Studies

(EMS)

o 12 weeks pre-clinical EMS

o 26 weeks clinical (6-8 weeks pre 4th year; 20 weeks years 4-5)

o there are no stipulations as to the types of practices which students MUST attend,

however get advice from mentors

o assessment is formative (portfolios and case reports, linked to mentors)

o student must meet with practitioner to discuss objectives for clinical work; discuss if

these objectives have been met at end of practical work

o practitioners reviews students (but not a summative assessment); students review the

practice and these get reviewed by the EMS coordinator


� the final year course is given during the whole year, including summer and Easter vacations as

well as all three terms (26 weeks of internal instruction and ~26 weeks of EMS)

� this is comparable to the final year, lecture free teaching at both Sydney and VMRCVM – where

students are also required to be in clinics for most of the entire final year (both schools have a 3-

4 week vacation block for students)



� the format of this clinical experience is also similar in that students rotate through various

services within the University Veterinary Teaching Hospitals as well as undertake placements at

external clinics

3. Discussion with Course Leaders

Large Animal Clinical Sciences (David Barrett)

� ~50% of the internal program in final year is large animal oriented (12 weeks versus 14 weeks of

SA)

� in Large Animal there are 4 weeks of core for everyone, then students may select 8 weeks of

either food animal or equine

o although this is called “electives” it really is a form of tracking (very minor though in

comparison to “tracking” in final year in the US

o more students choose Food Animal – but not because they are interested in food

safety/ rather on mixed animal practice

o students are encouraged to cover alternate species (i.e., equine or FA) in their EMS so

that they are prepared for final exam

o the core rotation includes 1 week of Public Health

� the 8 weeks of FA or Equine are predominantly spent at internal/selected practices (e.g., Clyde

practice)

� assessment in LACS occurs at the end of rotations (no summative assessment during 12 weeks –

but do have formative assessment – mock exams)

o 8 stations – 20 minutes each

o 2 examiners who give independent marks (one examiner/one observer)

o 1 station – P/H

o 5 stations – clinical (3 equine/2 FA) – cover history, clinical exam, discussion)

o 2 stations - variable

o change stations every 8 students so that the cases are not leaked out

o will check to see that RCVS core competencies are covered in exam

o no statistical difference between students if do FA or Equine track – so core (and

EMS) must be preparing them for this exam

o rare student that fails these exams – may be required to redo a section (e.g., Equine

or FA)

Small Animal Clinical Sciences (Clare Knottenbelt)

� students get a good clinical experience in Year 5 in small animals

� mixture of both primary care and secondary/tertiary referral cases

� it would be good to be able to expand some of their clinical experiences, potentially through the

introduction of electives



o these may be offered during the summer months?

o May also be offered to practitioners for CPD

� the problem with the students experience in final year is not the teaching activities in this year –

but how well prepared the students are when they get there so that they can make the most of

these experiences!

Current Weaknesses and Strengths in Year 5 students

� rare student who has to redo final year

o good identification of “at risk” students in earlier years and either appropriate

remediation of they are dismissed from the course

� however, some of the courses in Years 1-3 have many students failing them!

o are these too harsh?

o although students have not demonstrated sufficient proficiency for these courses are

they testing the appropriate competencies for clinical veterinarians; are these the

courses you want to have determining if a student is going to be a competent

practitioner?

� think the curriculum needs to undergo a significant restructure with clearly defined end points

(will take time to achieve this!)

o the curriculum needs to be producing “clinically competent veterinarians who have an

interest in the broader sciences” rather than “scientists who are vaguely clinically

competent”

a) Large Animal Perspective:

� there are a number of deficiencies noted in some of the students arriving in final year which

impact on their ability to engage with the material presented in LA Clinical Sciences:

o some have limited farm experience and are naïve with respect to farming practices

o some have a poor ability to handle data sets required for herd management

o some require better animal handling skills (being helped by clinical skills laboratory)

o some do not know their anatomy and especially the clinical application of this

information

o many students can’t jump from pharmacology to therapeutics – students don’t know

which drug to use in specific conditions

� in all cases – how much is contributed by individual student deficits (i.e. the student is poor in

this subject) and how much is contributed by deficiencies in earlier courses

o it is important for GUVS to determine which of these is occurring (potentially a

mixture of both) and in which specific subject areas

o correction of these deficiencies is needed as part of the current curriculum review

� the students do have good knowledge base of clinical subject due to Year 4 course (knowledge

and skills from a FA perspective is good)

� also student have good integration of knowledge between FA and Public Health



� need to be careful about safeguarding what is currently occurring in Year 4 that is good – could

be a problem with staff changes

b) Small Animal Perspective:

� students need to be better prepared when they get to their final year in order to make the most

of their learning opportunities

� they appear to have lost a lot of their pre-clinical knowledge and can’t apply the knowledge they

do have in real clinical situations (? couldn’t see the relevance of the material as they were

learning it for the first time)

� some of the pre-clinical courses do have clinicians giving lectures to increase clinical relevance

o however there are clearly tensions between the two groups in what is considered

required or core knowledge (e.g., “clinicians only teach clinically relevant anatomy”)

� the Day 1 competencies need to be mapped within the pre-clinical and para-clinical courses

o should not just list them in the Course Information Documents as is currently done

� the students appeared to be swamped with information (overloaded) which causes them to lose

interest and de-motivates them to integrate the material within complex clinical cases (“they

are drained/sapped of enthusiasm by the time they reach Year 5)

� they need to be taught clinical skills earlier in the curriculum

o need to start with basic/fundamental skills in Year 1 and then build on these over the

consecutive years

o earlier, more basic skills don’t need to be taught by clinicians, veterinary nurses would

be more than satisfactory

o students should at least know how to triage a patient at the end of Year 1 (First Aid

competent – this was strongly echoed by the students in their meeting)



b) Program Management:

� There are number of different management structures currently in place in the GUVS which

impact upon teaching and the delivery of the curriculum to veterinary students:

Academic Divisions

� staff are “located” within one of the 6 academic divisions:

o Cell Sciences

o Pathological Sciences

o Infection and Immunity

o Companion Animal Sciences

o Animal Production and Public Health

o Wellcome Centre for Molecular Parasitology

� the heads of these divisions control staff time, and determine the proportion of their time which

may be allocated to teaching

� the course leaders are also answerable to their Heads of Division, in addition to the Associate

Dean L&T

o there may be differences in perceived needs for L&T by these two person (problems

with a matrix system)

o this system is similar to the Departmental system at the VMRCVM

o in comparison at Sydney, the Departments/Divisions were disbanded!

� this has allowed control of all teaching, and teaching resources, to be under the

jurisdiction of the Associate Dean L&T, and the SubDean for the BVSc degree

Learning and Teaching Committee

� this committee includes the Associate Dean L&T, the Deputy Associate Dean L&T, the QA

Officer, Program Leaders (BVMS and BSc) and a PG representative

� the L&T committee has oversight for all teaching occurring within the faculty, its quality

assurance, and approves any major changes to program structure (governance)

Program Boards (BVMS and BSc)

� these board have recently been formed to reinforce the concept of the program being the

integral teaching structure and to separate the administration of L&T within the Faculty

(responsibility of the L&T committee) from the management of content within the program

(Program Boards)

� this committee also oversees recommendations for improvement and innovation

� the BVMS Program Board includes all the Associate Dean L&T, all course leaders (~16) in the

BVMS program, the senior TU Administrator and the Director of Student Admissions

� the Boards meet 4 times per year



The Learning and Teaching Unit

� provides administrative support for delivery of the curriculum in both BVMS and BSc programs

Meetings with Administrators

1. Dean (Stuart Reid)

� there are a number of ongoing developments occurring within the GUVS and one of the current

areas of focus is teaching within the BVMS degree

� the recent evaluation of assessment practices and the proposed curriculum review are integral

to this process and are essential for ongoing quality assurance of the program at the level of the

University, and the upcoming RCVS visit in 2012

� there has been a desire to revise the curriculum since around 2002, but for a variety of reasons

curriculum renewal and/or restructure, has not occurred

� however, there has been a recent appointment of new Associate, and Deputy Associate, Deans

of Learning and Teaching and a reorganization of the committees governing L&T within GUVS

o feels confident the new internal structure will assist the implantation of any

recommended changes

o but wants to consider if further changes to management might provide addition

assistance to effectively manage this process

� it must also be remembered that any recommendations for change to the current curriculum,

and the associated costs of its implementation (both financial and staff time), must be made in

the light of current constraints within the faculty (e.g., University restructure, new degree

program, increasing student numbers, current financial situation etc)

� there are a number of distinctive features with regards GUVS which are important to

acknowledge and obviously maintain in a revised curriculum

o single campus

o international staff and students

o the school, and the curriculum, embraces all stakeholders (e.g., practitioners,

government agencies and the international community involved in Animal Health)

� so preparation of students for their professional life (“Gateway to the

Profession”) – not just as potential practitioners, but in all the arenas in which

veterinarians may contribute to society

o the students are happy!

o the current team of staff has expertise in the three essential foci of clinical service,

learning and teaching, and research

� curriculum development needs to emphasize the linkages and synergies

between these three areas to ensure the faculty itself continues to grow and

develop, and to allow students to see all the options within the profession



� aspirations for the Faculty

o maintains current position as one of the premier veterinary schools both in the UK and

internationally and to be a player in the development of veterinary education globally

o delivers a curriculum that is innovative, internationally relevant, and sustainable

o links curriculum development to the future directions of the veterinary profession so

that the decisions regarding societal needs of the profession are reflected in any

recommended changes (“our graduates will be asked to get in the lifeboat”)

2. Associate Dean (Jim Anderson) and Deputy Associate Dean (David Barrett)

� the administration at GUVS have been wanting to do a curriculum review for many years, and

there have been a couple of earlier recommendations, but these have not gained traction with

the faculty

� the most recent push for a review started with the introduction of a new Associate Dean L&T

and a Deputy Associate Dean L&T in 2007

� their desired outcome for the review is to deliver a world class curriculum, using new and more

effective teaching methodologies, in the face of increasing student numbers, the introduction of

a second degree, and decreasing faculty/staff numbers!

� they recognized that part of the curriculum review process would be about changing student

perspectives, not necessarily just about changing content

� also about changing the way the content is delivered – so that emphasizing/teaching student’s

life-long learning skills

� the new curriculum/program also needs to be:

o sustainable

o distinctive

o more flexible

o play to the strengths of the Faculty

o developing some innovative methods of delivery

o with ultimate goal of attaining the desired attributes/learning outcomes

� the curriculum also has to be relevant to all the student body, which is becoming increasingly

diverse

o North America (~1/3rd of students in each year)

o Africa (Botswana – 5-7 students/year)

o Asian (may get increasing students from Malaysia etc)

� so the students need to be capable of practicing veterinary medicine in all these

locations e.g., have an understanding of tropical vet medicine

o The backgrounds of the students entering the program is also diverse and has to be

taken into consideration for any recommended curriculum changes e.g., straight out of

high school as are many of the Scottish students, versus 4 years (or more) of

undergraduate years at US colleges



� flexibility

o currently very little

� there is some choice in final year (equine versus food animal) but basically very

little

o other UK schools beginning to offer more flexibility and the US schools offer a lot of

flexibility through tracking (see Appendix 1)

o students would like more (though also expressed concern that they would “miss out” on

important things when discussing this issue with me

o electives/courses that would be of particular value in the Glasgow curriculum could

include:

� tropical medicine

� international veterinary medicine

� exotics and pocket pets (student driven)

� advanced topics in …. e.g., SA cardiology, oncology, equine neonatology and

pediatrics, epidemiology, public health etc.

� want to consider the possibility of identifying some distinctive themes within the curriculum

o a good way to “brand” the faculty and its major emphasis in teaching (can no longer be

“everything to everybody”)

o these themes should be the current strengths of the faculty (versus introduction of

completely new ones?) e.g., Food Animal Health or Production Management, Public

Health/Food Safety

o already have a significant amount of the curriculum dedicated to these two areas – but

they are frequently interspersed within a number of courses and so not readily

identifiable

o need to be better connecting all the material presented and selling the themes as “what

do they deliver to the students as well as the community”

� but need to ensure there is sufficient student demand and/or interest in these

themes if they are going to be used to “brand” the faculty

• ? might question the amount of student interest in a Public Health

theme

� also sufficient external interest from other stakeholders e.g., government

agencies, practitioners

� obviously certain themes would appeal to certain stakeholders e.g., Public

Health would have a strong political agenda given the current climate in the UK

and also with EAEVE

� Professional Practice theme

o currently no vertical theme covering this subject areas as occurs in many other

veterinary faculties

� would be good to have one

� topics are currently dispersed within courses



� considering either the creation of set of specific courses for this topic which

would be delivered in each year, or continue to integrate them into current

courses but have them more clearly identified and linked

� this theme could also include clinical skills as well as some of the non-cognitive

skills e.g., communications, ethics, professionalism

� recognize would need to have a theme “manager/leader” to make sure both

properly integrated and also Learning Outcomes/Activities and Assessments

have constructive alignment

3. Admissions – Joyce Wason

� admit – 120 students/year.

� interview both UK (250 of ~ 650 qualified) and US students (3 sites)

o based on academic ability, practical experience, personal statement and references

o each application is individually scored by three people (faculty)

o the interview panel(s) consists of Admissions Director, 1 member of Academic staff, 1

practitioners (may use up to 2 panels).

o interviews are 20 minutes per student

o the questions are based on the students application and are a mixture of standard

questions (e.g., “have you been in a situations where you have had to deal with

conflict”; “what do you think about the use of animals in research”) and questions

relating to their own application (“what interests you most in veterinary medicine and

what jobs may veterinarians do”)

o do have some interest in changing this to a more standardized system (e.g., MMIs)

� overseas – full fee paying students are essential for the BVMS degree:

o in competition with a number of schools in the UK (Edinburgh, Dublin and RVC) and

Australasia (Sydney, Murdoch, Melbourne, Massie) and increasingly difficult to:

� get sufficient students to fill quota

� get the quality of students Glasgow wishes to include in their program

o some of the other schools now offer 4 year degrees (e.g., Edinburgh, London and

Dublin) and this has increased the competition for the US students in particular

� should Glasgow also offer this option???

o cost is ~ £20,000/year (~$30,000 US) – but the degree is 5 years (~$150,000 total)

� still less than a lot of out-of-state fees (e.g., VT is $39,000/yr; only 4 years but

total = ~$160,000)

� but higher cost of living; students have to do 12 weeks of EMS in holidays (less

opportunity to earn money), and have to pay for return trips to US



o want to continue to attract high quality students (currently GPA of entering students is

good) as poorer quality students find it more difficult to get through the programme

(increasing attrition and decreasing number of students in later years) and if students do

manage to get through the program (or are “allowed” to) there could be problems with

the pass rate of NAVLEs (currently OK) which will ultimately affect accreditation!

� It is becoming increasing more difficult to recruit the required number of overseas students, due

to the current economic climate and the increased competition from other Veterinary Schools,

both in the UK and overseas. These students are essential to an economically viable educational

programme.

4. Quality Assurance – Neil Evans (Quality Enhancement Officer)

� a variety of methods are used to assess the quality of the courses within the BVMS program

� the main summary mechanism is via the Annual Monitoring Reports (AMRs) which are

completed by the course leader for each courses within the BVMS program

o a summary report (Undergraduate Annual Monitoring Report) is subsequently

prepared by the Quality Enhancement Officer and delivered to the University Quality

Assurance Program and ultimately the University Senate

� the course AMRs include data and observations from a number of sources

o Student Course and Instructor Evaluations

� done every term for every course (?)

� given an evaluation out of 5

� have had a poor return rate when done electronically, and so often done at

exam time (return of ~70% considered acceptable); mindful of evaluation

fatigue by students

� faculty feel that getting good feedback

o Focus group

� discussions occur every term for all courses

� involves a mixture of students (mature, overseas, home, doing well, doing

poorly)

� used in lots of different ways and may be structured differently (i.e. Year 1 focus

group, other years have focus groups for specific courses)

� some members of staff felt these worked well, others felt that they were not

very productive

o Informal Interactions

� e.g., during tutorials, practical classes

� questionnaires



o Feedback from Teaching Staff

� involves teaching teams and divisional meetings

� identify areas of satisfaction and also areas of concern (requiring attention)

o External Examiners

� give feedback on both program and especially on assessment tasks

� do also identify areas of good practice and areas of concern

� the course leader must also outline in the AMRs how they have responded to student, staff and

external examiner evaluations and particularly any concerns raised

� similarly the faculty report has to outline the list of actions at the course level and at the

program level

� the QAO feels that the system is working well and appropriate changes are made based on

these different forms of feedback

� furthermore, there is higher University oversight of the process where the University QA

Committee does review these documents carefully and require that actions have been taken

Issues with Quality Assurance of Courses and BVMS Program

� the numbers generated from students evaluations

o did not see these and they were not included in the Annual Monitoring Report for the

Faculty

o these numbers are used for staff evaluations by Division Heads (for P&T considerations

to demonstrate teaching excellence by individual members of staff) but the faculty

and/or QA Officer has not identified a cut-off mark that forces more comprehensive

evaluation of a course

� for example if a course receives a very poor student evaluation it wasn’t clear

how this was determined or addressed

� there did not appear to be an ongoing comparison between courses, or within courses, over

time with regards these evaluation

o although the University committee can and does require a response to the concerns of

the students, external examiners, staff etc they are not looking critically at what is being

taught and if it is appropriate/suitable in an overarching way

o this is to be expected – but need to have some mechanism whereby this is occurring; is

this the responsibility of the L&T committee

� how to do this in an ongoing, structured manner?

� the QA Officer believes the current system for course evaluation works adequately and would

need more resources if wanted to make greater use of the data

� No peer evaluation (of any note) – see below



Course and Program Enhancement Mechanisms

� Teacher Training Programs

o new members of staff are required to undertake the University teacher training

programs and which results in the awarding of a Diploma

o the University also has many ongoing programs/courses – but these are not required

� Peer Review of Teaching

o there is no formal program for peer review of teaching with the GUVS

o the Associate Dean is in charge of ongoing continuing professional development for

teaching staff

� currently working very effectively???

� occurring on an informal and sporadic manner???

� Teaching Awards

o Faculty – one, Fort Dodge Animal Health, first awarded 2009

o University – yes (and members of staff have been awarded these; but in relatively low

numbers)

o United Kingdom – yes (but not sought after by this Faculty?)

� Scholarship of Teaching

o not promoted strongly

� competes with other research focus

� some reported e.g., anatomy staff

o innovation not seen as being rewarded

o do have time to do this? (teaching loads may be lower than people think – comment for

member of staff)

� Information Technology

o Moodle is the Course Management System (CMS) – a reasonably recently acquisition

o variable reports as to how good Moodle is!

o ? not very good for assessment (rubbish as one person put it)

� used to have IT educationalist – but she left and was not replaced

o definitely missed by some/quite a few!

o many felt is was difficult or impossible to develop innovative sites and activities

on these sites without a dedicated person to do this

o there is quite a difference between most Moodle course sites and

pharmacology (developed with the aid of this person)

� no one really using Moodle for podcasting, developing new innovative eLearning tools,

or course work development



Meeting with Students Representatives � included representatives from Years 1-5

� also included students from US

� ~15 students present

� students also presented 2 document

o suggestions for improvement – 2010 (these incorporated below)

o proposed improvement of Exotic Animal Teaching at GUVS

� Years 1-3

o were concerned about the relevance of the earlier years – wanted better integration of

pre-clinical and clinical information

� lack of integration resulted in loss of enthusiasm

� did not retain information learnt in preclinical years for use in clinical years

o were concerned about the amount of anatomy taught and its relevance in later years;

and noted that anatomy had been taught in much the same way for many years

� there is so much material they never get a chance to really learn it and didn’t

know what was important!

o though final year students pointed out that some positive changes have been made

(e.g., introduction of some clinical skills in anatomy) in response to student evaluations

o were aware of PBL models of teaching – did not advocate this, but did want to have an

applied approach – which they did not feel they were getting at this time

o some courses in particular were not applied

� e.g., pharmacology – parts of this course did not seem relevant and did not

discuss sufficiently the drugs they will be using in practice

� not enough emphasis on therapeutics

� not integrated with other courses (this is a general criticism of the courses) and

can’t see their relevance as a result

o very little exposure to the hospital; used to have Grand Rounds but now have Case of

the Week and don’t like this nearly as much

� Year 4

o lot of lectures/large group teaching hours

o very little small group teaching

� Repetition

o students identified a lot of repetition in the program and wanted it removed

� felt there was extensive amount of pathology, microbiology and parasitology in

year 3 which was then re-taught in year 4 (? due to poor integration/not taught

in a contextual manner in year 3)

� felt this reduced lecture time available for other aspects of the course



� Balance of the Course

o felt the course was not evenly balanced/distributed between species

� current bias towards Small Animals/Food Animals with a bit of Equine and

virtually no “pocket pets” or exotics

� gave me a detailed letter on exotics and what the students would like

incorporated in the curriculum – this had been presented to the staff-student

liaison committee in 2009

� would like a certificate holder in exotics to be in new hospital

� Assessment

o the large final exams make students just cram for these exams with “rote learning” and

have “academic bulimia”; current exam system does not encourage deep learning

� what they end up doing is choosing parts of the course to study – gambling that

they will be the parts in the exam

� accepting the fact that they are not going to learn it all – too much volume to be

able to do this

o came to University to learn the degree – want some more support to do this

o although supposed to be continuous assessment – not really

� but do understand need to separate the “wheat from the chaff”

o wanted a Modular Course structure with “end of topic” exams which have a significant

weighting

� felt this would force learning and assessment of all areas of the course and prevent

“question spotting”

� wanted 50% of course grade from modules (which would include essays/review

papers not just written exams) and 50% from “final” exams

o want assessment to focus on core knowledge and its application

o wanted to scrap OSCEs in later years and replace with system by which clinicians can

“sign off” set clinical skills as being performed properly

� felt this would reduce student stress, provide more realistic scenarios (so less

errors in miscommunication) and could easily be done for the majority of clinical

skills

� thought this may be able to be done in a way that students received a

“proficiency certificate” in certain skills, which would allow them to do more

things on their EMS placements as the University had demonstrated they were

proficient

o found some of the assessment tasks interesting

� e.g., parasitology – projects

� essays for research

� though mini-projects would be really useful



� liked the SDLAs – but should be allowed to choose – would improve the learning

if you are interested in the topic

o pleased the negative marking is gone!

o sometimes there is not good alignment between the material presented in lectures and

what is in the assessments

o some thought the current number of exams too many (27)

� Flexibility

o don’t support the concept of tracking

o don’t believe would be able to go out into practice and be skilled enough in any area

o also not that interested in electives

� really think the material they have presented is required to know and that is

sufficient material (already a lot)

� maybe in summer – but could also do research project

� “Practice Ready”/EMS

o don’t think they graduate as confident/competent Day 1 veterinarians

o particularly concerned about clinical skills

o Nottingham graduates seem to be “shining” in this area

o Glasgow graduates have a reputation for having

� poor clinical skills

� can’t problem solve

o felt clinical skills should be more incorporated throughout the program/curriculum and

integrated appropriately into the courses (see also under assessment for tracking of

clinical skills)

� appreciated some of the changes being made in this area

o animal handling and clinical skills were not emphasized enough

� though appreciated some changes were being made to try to integrate these

better – but felt could do more

o EMS – wanted better guidelines on which clinical skills should practice on EMS (and get

ticked off/signed off)

� felt this would lead to more fulfilling and directed time in EMS

� wanted better guidelines for EMS in general; what to do, where to go etc

� intercalated year

o understand that this is an option

o don’t feel it is pushed very much – though more so now

� contact hours

o 1st year – high number of hours in general



o 2nd

year

� term 1 heavy – but little assessment

� term 2 not as many contact hours

� then got into a discussion that the hours are too long, and felt they needed time

to be able to balance their lives i.e. time to play sport, go to the pub etc, etc

(difference between the Scottish (? younger) students and the US (?older)

students)

� said the Faculty also encouraged them to have an “outside” life – and so they

should then respect the fact that they needed time to do this

� Courses/Topics to be Changed or Added

o 2nd year – neuroanatomy

� embryology

� Animal Husbandry needs to be cut down to basics – what is relevant/applied

(but then had discussion of often you don’t know it is relevant until you get to

year 5 and are out the farms)

� Biomolecular Sciences – decrease research/laboratory procedures

o would like a course on Exotics/Pocket Pets (“furries)

� presented a detailed request for this

o would really like a course on Animal First Aid in Year 1

� felt like they had no idea to do any triage for an animal in their first three years,

and yet this would really make them feel like they were becoming veterinarians!

o would like EMS to be funded

� Types of Learning Activities and Teaching Support

o should have less self-directed learning

o and when doing SDLAs – should have more choice

o notes for courses may not be available (though most courses do have them)

o do have power points and may have to read off these

o wanted lecturers to give references/reading material BEFORE lectures so that students

could be prepared for the lecture and then have the lecture be more clinical relevant

and less encyclopedic

� Student Input into Course Evaluations

o have given various ideas over the years and can see change, but lots of ideas have not

been implemented

o feel like the program is currently “stuck in the middle – trying to find a balance of

teaching the basic sciences and clinical material – but have not achieved this

o also – these are handed out during exams – but just want to get out of there and so

aren’t focusing on the evaluation



o the focus groups are OK – but variable between courses

� tend to focus on threshold of frustration from students!

� but were a good way to get change happening in the courses

� Diversity

o appreciated the fact that they had a diverse student body

� National Student Survey (NSS)

o Edinburgh and RVC scored poorly

o note: RVC now focusing on why this the case and have a dedicated faculty member

investigating student concerns

� Clinical Teaching

o condense rotations which have days off, to allow an extra rotation which could be used

to teach exotics

o have an ICU rotation in which you work in ICU during the day

o get rid of randomly placed night shifts – want to do this in a block of time

o increase exposure to more 1st opinion work

o more information on commonly used drugs (therapeutics/clinical pharmacology) e.g.,

steroids, antibiotics etc

o final year rotations should be more modular with a “mini” exam at the end which should

count towards your final mark

o more cardiology

o bring back Grand Rounds – really enjoyed having a large number of staff present to ask

questions. Morph this into “Clinical Club Talk”?



c) Current Curriculum in terms of:

i. Developing the political ambitions of a global “one health” agenda

� this driver for curriculum development was mentioned by a number of administrators (Dean,

Associate Dean, Deputy Associate Dean) and by some members of staff (less on their agenda)

� currently there is a reasonably well defined Public Health theme within the curriculum and this

subject is emphasized and taught within a number of different courses over several years of the

curriculum;

o this focus is required for EAEVE accreditation and is very helpful for selling to external

agencies interested in the “One Health” agenda

� this focus could be developed even further, with a clearly demarcated theme using constructive

alignment to show the intended learning outcomes (ILOs), where these ILOs are being taught,

and how they are being assessed

o this process would help drive further development of this theme with the potential for

introduction of additional, relevant material either within current courses, or

development of specific courses for the theme – potentially as electives:

� international veterinary medicine,

� emerging and exotic diseases of animals

� veterinary public policies

� animal welfare

� as mentioned previously, care must be taken in “branding” this theme, and potentially the

whole curriculum, as it may appeal to specific groups with political agendas in this area (e.g.,

OIE, EAEVE, DEFRA) but may not appeal to many students

o “more students take the Food Animal Track in final year, but not because they are

interested in Public Health/Food Safety, rather because they wish to go into mixed

animal practice”

o in addition, North American students traditionally are not attracted to this field as it has

not had the same focus in the US as in Europe and the UK

o however, this awareness may be changing, and at the VMRCVM we are seeing an

increasing interest from students in the concept of One Health/One Medicine as this

message is being sold to a far greater extent by a variety of agencies (e.g., AMA, AVMA)

as well as the general media

ii. Addressing the international nature of the student population

� in contrast to Public Health, there does not appear to be any course or underlying theme which

highlights the international nature of the curriculum

o would go so far as to say that the current curriculum appears to be international in

name only!



� there may be some internationally relevant topics/subjects that are included within some

courses, but these are hard to find, and there is certainly not a clearly demarcated theme on this

topic within the curriculum

� would be politically expedient, especially for recruiting international students, to develop a

theme along this line within the curriculum

� however, updating the present curriculum to make it truly relevant for all students attending

GUVS will be an additional and significant challenge for the review

� have to carefully modify or create courses which will attract/retain students and which

will allow them to enter the workforce around the world with the required Day 1

knowledge, skills and attributes

� in addition, as a result of the factors described earlier, there is a greater impetus to “brand” the

GUVS curriculum in a way that will attract not only sufficient students, but high quality students

� there is a need to maintain current entry GPA of international students – which is

presently good

� may need to “predict” the potential interests of these students and enhance the

curriculum in these areas and then market this

� a final consideration of the international nature of the student population is the ongoing need

to remain accredited with ALL the current accrediting agencies to allow your graduates to

practice in their country of origin

� it is therefore imperative that GUVS consider the direction of curriculum development in

the countries from which these agencies originate and potentially align their curricula

with these future directions (may need to make some hard decisions as to exactly how

far you may wish to take this)

� e.g., EAEVE – Public Health/Food Safety requirements and especially the trend

to determine curriculum content in this area

� AVMA – more flexibility in the program to the point of tracking, and potentially

even extreme tracking leading to partial licensure

iii. Long term robustness in light of likely changes in the societal and professional

pressures driving the outcomes of veterinary education

� there are a number of factors which are influencing curriculum development globally and which

were outlined in Section II: Current Climate, Constraints and Challenges

� one of these drivers is the need for veterinary faculties to be producing graduates that are

relevant not only for today’s society, but societies in the next 10 to 20 years

� however, one of the difficulties veterinary faculties are facing is predicting these societal needs

and there are many messages out there from various interest groups as to what these needs

may be



� in addition, faculties have to try to predict what the future face of veterinary practice will be,

especially in the light of the ongoing gender imbalance which is unlikely to reverse

o as a result, it is possible (probable) that veterinary practices will change from the single

or small group of practitioners to larger, and possibly corporatized practices

o have to consider how this may potentially impact the way veterinarians practice and the

skills they need upon graduation

� although it will not be possible to predict all future directions of the profession, there are some

likely ongoing drivers which veterinary curricula must address in order to produce effective,

contemporary practitioners including:

o the expanding knowledge base

o increasing information literacy (i.e. Google and the world wide web)

� some of the ways in which the new curricula must address these drivers will be based on

changes to the information presented to students, and others will involve changes to the

delivery and assessment of this material

� currently the veterinary curriculum at the GUVS is hindered by its over-emphasis on the

traditional model of veterinary medical education, and courses which have not developed or

changed over many years

� in order to change this trend, and to develop an innovative and relevant veterinary curriculum,

the GUVS will need to closely examine not only the material that is being presented, but when it

is presented, the way it is presented, and how it is being assessed

IV. Issues and Recommendations

a) Issues Identified:

1. A curriculum review has been touted for many years – but curriculum change has not occurred:

� this lack of curriculum renewal has been a good excuse for some courses, in need of change, not

to undergo a review process

� other courses have already proceeded with an internal review and made either major or minor

changes, which is to be commended

� however, care must be taken that the curriculum review does not become “piecemeal”

and that a common goal and unifying process underlies the majority of the curricular changes

� there is an upcoming RCVS visit in 2012 and the review should be completed by this time and at

least partially implemented

� the review needs to be significant – but this does not necessarily equate to a significant change

to the structure of the program i.e. evolution not revolution

� but the GUVS must be able to demonstrate to accrediting agencies that you have carefully

considered the desired outcomes of your program and have made changes based on these



2. Anatomy has too many student contact hours – these courses need to be decreased significantly

3. Animal Husbandry needs to be a more contemporary course and include integration with the

development of a Professional Theme which includes clinical skills

4. Although there have been efforts to improve the course, Pharmacology is still not seen as being

taught in context or with appropriate emphasis i.e., lack of understanding of the application of

therapeutics is a major problem perceived by students and clinical faculty

5. There are significantly fewer hours of infectious diseases/agents (bacteriology, virology,

parasitology) taught at GUVS as compared to Sydney University and the VMRCVM

6. Courses involving infectious agents (bacteria, viruses, parasites) are taught without strong clinical

emphasis and linkages – getting further away from this with retirements

7. Material presented in these courses (and other courses in the first three years) is subsequently

repeated in Year 4

8. Years 1-3 have too much emphasis on basic sciences and not enough on clinical sciences

� many of the courses in Years 1-3 acknowledge the clinical sciences, and may include some

lectures or reference to clinical material, but the courses are not taught with the goal of truly

preparing students to be effective veterinary clinicians first, with a sound understanding of the

underlying principles and the ability to apply this knowledge in appropriate clinical situations

9. Tensions between staff as to the focus of training for veterinary students (competent, confident Day

1 veterinarians versus critical thinking/problem solving scientists)

� the two are not mutually exclusive, but at times they appeared to be through the concerns

voiced by staff

10. Year 4 has too many lectures and too many student contact hours

11. However, there is insufficient clinical material taught in the course in Years 1-4

12. There is no cohesive theme of Professional Development (including development of clinical skills

and non-cognitive skills)

13. Still trying to be “everything to everybody” – lack of flexibility in the course

14. It is an international degree in name only

15. The program management team needs more teeth (especially to drive curriculum change)

16. There is a lack of cohesion between the courses taught within BVMS program (courses are isolated

units and are not integrated)

17. Interaction between instructors within teaching years and between teaching years is problematic

18. There is no peer review and a more collegial approach to curriculum improvement needs to be

developed

19. There is no overarching quality assurance/assessment of program – hence no ongoing curriculum

review/renewal

20. Demonstrated excellence in teaching needs better recognition and rewards within the Faculty

21. Assessment is driving superficial learning



b) Solutions Proposed:

Below are some potential solutions to the issues noted above. These should be viewed as a starting

point for an evolving process, and not complete resolution. In addition the direction, outcomes, and

procedures to be undertaken in the review process need to be determined by the Program Board and its

leadership, in consultation with the higher administration and staff, to facilitate buy-in by all those

influenced by the conclusions of a curriculum review.

1. Curriculum Review

a) “Evolution not Revolution”

o Many of the staff interviewed provided strong feedback that due to the current

constraints occurring at GUVS (e.g., decreased financial resources, increased class size,

additional degree, emphasis on income generation through research or clinical activity),

the curriculum review needed to involve smaller, potentially gradual changes rather

than sweeping overall reform

o they agreed that GUVS needs to undertake a curriculum review, but there was little

support for an entirely new curriculum, especially amongst the pre-clinical staff

o whilst this direction is probably prudent, care must be taken that the review is not so

diluted that sufficient and required change is not achieved

� as noted earlier, a common goal and unifying process should underlie the curriculum

review, and the endpoints of the review process must be clearly identified and the

indicators or their achievement determined

b) Understand the Drivers of Curriculum Change and their impact on the Glasgow

Curriculum

� a number of drivers of veterinary curriculum development have been indentified in this

paper and which will potentially impact a curriculum review at GUVS

� some of these are easier to address than others!

� however, they each need to be considered and a plan to address them incorporated into

the review process

c) Identify desired broad graduate attributes (Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes - KSAs)

and map these to current curriculum

� one possible way to start a curriculum review is to identify the broad graduate

attributes (knowledge, skills and attitudes) that faculty AGREE are desirable for GUVS

graduates

� obviously these could align with the Day 1 skills, but may wish to further identify specific

attributes which are in keeping with the KSAs that Glasgow wishes to “brand” their

curriculum



� then have to seriously map these to the current curriculum

o for example, using this technique the integral components of required Day 1 skills

should be identified and specifically shown where they are being taught

� e.g., the Day 1 skill “collect blood sample” may be mapped to anatomy where

an ILO is that students can identify and locate appropriate blood vessels

required for venipuncture

� they could start practicing collection techniques in either this course or a

parallel Professional Practice course

� but every single vessel does not need the same emphasis or even be included in

the Anatomy course as they are not included in required learning outcomes for

the program

� please note that merely including the Day 1 Skills within the Course Information

Document does not equate to truly embracing these skills as required competencies and

ensuring they are not only taught but also assessed within these courses or the

curriculum

� furthermore, mapping these skills can be used to distinguish areas of the curriculum and

specific courses, which may not be needed, or could be de-emphasized as they are not

relevant

� important to also map non-cognitive skills such as communication, problem-solving and

critical thinking and demonstrate where these are being taught and assessed

� this process does not need to include fine mapping, which is expensive and time

consuming, but broad curriculum mapping, based on these attributes, would be very

helpful

d) Benchmark with other Faculties

� an additional, or alternate, way to assess the content of either the curriculum, or more

specifically problem courses, is to benchmark them against other courses in the UK or

potentially overseas (e.g., Australasia – also 5 year degree; or possibly the US)

� benchmarking can be a powerful tool to evaluate the content of a course, develop new

approaches to teaching and assessing within courses, and motivate staff due to

collaborative interaction with other persons interested in their subject

e) Modify sections of the current curriculum

o there are sections of the current curriculum which are currently taught to excess and

sections which, in my opinion, are under taught

o the sections that are over taught are not duplications per se, rather are providing

information in greater detail than is required for a competent Day 1 veterinarian

o the most notable of these is Veterinary Anatomy which should be decreased in size and

student contact hours



o however, the overall student contact hours should not be decreased, rather the hours

taken from some courses should be replaced with other courses, or moving current

courses from clinical years into earlier years and expanding these (see below)

o other courses in Years 1-3 need to be updated (e.g., Animal Husbandry) or taught with

more clinical context (e.g., Pharmacology, Biomolecular Sciences)

o in contrast, there needs to be additional material added to the curriculum, specifically in

clinical subjects

o this material should not be added to Year 4, which is already overloaded

o this material could be expanded from the current material embedded in courses in

Years 1-3

� if this approach is taken, it needs to be done in a meaningful manner rather

than the current ad hoc method with inclusion of occasional lectures which are

not assessed, and therefore do drive effective student learning

� this material needs to have inclusive and transparent ILOs, teaching activities

and the material included in the course assessment

� the material presented in individual, non-clinical courses must also be coherent

and integrated with other material presented in other earlier courses

(developed within a distinctive theme) or students will not see the relevance

and will not be able to use or apply this earlier material when they reach the

clinical years

o alternatively, distinctive courses could be developed to teach clinical material in

earlier years, such as a Professional Development or Professional Practice suite of

courses which could include a strong clinical theme

� it may be easier to develop entirely new courses, than to successfully embed

this material in existing courses

� but development of these courses must be adequately resourced, which may be

an issue

� an advantage of this proposal is that the pre-clinical courses, taught within the

same year, could be linked with the “clinical” course, and therefore increase the

clinical relevance and application of the material presented

f) Increase flexibility

� in the US it is becoming increasingly recognized that it is no longer possible to teach

“everything to everyone” and that a degree of program flexibility is not only required,

but desired by students, to ensure new graduates are competent and confident in the

areas they wish to be, but not necessarily in every possible area of veterinary medicine

� whilst this has not translated (to date) to extreme tracking and partial licensure, most of

the veterinary faculties in North America, and some in Australasia, offer some degree of

selection in the final clinical year of their veterinary programs, and a couple of the



faculties (VMRCVM and Davis) have introduced tracking in the pre-clinical years (see

Appendix 2)

� in addition, most of the North American Colleges offer a variety of electives/selectives

to students in pre-clinical years to increase the breadth of information student may

choose to engage with

� it should be noted that the current “elective” courses offered by GUVS in the final year

are not really “electives”, but a minor form of tracking

� although this current tracking should continue, the GUVs needs to seriously consider the

possibility of expanding this final year tracking to include small animals, and the addition

of elective courses in earlier years

g) Ensure the new curriculum is relevant for all students

� as a continuation of this concept, the GUVS needs to ensure any core program is

applicable for the diverse student body studying within the school, or offer alternate

courses which are relevant to different student groups

o for example an alternate or flexible program for students from different countries

could be developed

o these tracks could potentially have different Day 1 skills or competencies and

include specific elective courses that assist these students in their ability to practice

in their country of origin

o these courses would also help the international nature of the curriculum and give

Scottish students the potential to engage with global veterinary medicine

2. Change the Current Program Management Structure

a) Provide BVMS Program Board with the “power” to drive curriculum review and

ongoing renewal

o the BVMS program Board needs to be the driver of the curriculum review and any

recommendations from this board (derived after appropriate consultation) need to be

implemented and adhered to

o the importance of the curriculum review, and buy-in from the Sections Heads and staff,

needs to be assured by the higher administration

o in addition, the Program Board needs to be the ongoing driving force for critical

evaluation of the curriculum, and ongoing curriculum renewal

o however, at a grass roots level, implementation of the directives of the Curriculum

Board may be assisted by the development of some “teaching groups”



b) Formation of Year Groups

o these may be formed for each year of the curriculum to develop better cohesion and

integration of courses within years – horizontal alignment

o in addition, these groups may share best practices (e.g., teaching activities, assessment

etc) amongst teaching staff and encourage collegiality to drive improved learning

outcomes

o these teaching groups have been formed at the University of Sydney and have created a

significant, positive impact on the teaching within years at that institution

c) Formation of “Theme Groups”

o to assist in the development of vertical alignment within curriculum, themes groups

could be developed

o the GUVS should select 2-3 important themes for this institution, and either make a

suite of courses suitable for this theme (similar to Professional Practice courses in

Sydney and VMRCVM) or get this group to ensure these themes are appropriately

represented in other courses (more difficult to do, but not creating new courses)

d) Improve rewards for Teaching Excellence

� staff describe themselves as overwhelmed and overworked, especially with the

introduction of the new degree, increased student numbers, and the push for increased

research output and clinic incomes

� in addition, doubt was expressed as to the “value” of teaching, especially with regards

rewards and recognition within both the Faculty and the University

� as described above, many of the staff have stated a desired for “Evolution not

Revolution” in a curriculum review as they are concerned with the imposts a major

review may have on their ability to continue research, service or clinical duties, which

are all income generators, and which are currently being perceived as being more highly

valued by the Faculty

� therefore for a curriculum review to be implemented in an effective and sustainable

manner, the staff contribution to this effort must be recognized in a distinct and positive

manner and by all levels of the faculty administration

� this has to be factored into staff P&T and has to be agreed upon by both higher

administration as well as section Heads

� in addition, monetary mechanisms for rewarding teaching excellence and

particularly innovation should be created and implemented



3. Continue to Evaluate Assessment

a) Assessment drives Learning

� this important premise needs to be re-iterated to all Course Leaders so they engage

with the concept, decide what they want students to learn (=understand and be able to

apply), and drive this learning through appropriate assessment

� assessment is also integral to curriculum development – therefore the faculty needs to

continue to evaluate current assessment practices in the light of the ongoing review

b) Variable Assessment Tasks

o The staff at GUVS have clearly made considerable efforts in recent years to introduce a

variety of assessment tasks within their course:

� MCQs

� Short Answers

� Essays

� OSCEs & Long Case Reviews

� Self Directed Learning Assignment

� Veterinary Integrated Learning Assignments etc

o some of these tasks are for individual students and some involve group learning

o many of the newer tasks are excellent and drive both student engagement and

comprehension as well as reflection, an essential life-long learning skills

o the GUVS are to be commended for this variety of assessment included both within

exams and also within courses

o however, due to the current overall assessment scheme, many of these newer

assessment tasks are of relatively low value

� this may decrease their significance in the eyes of the students

� the skills being assessed (e.g., critical thinking) may contribute less to the overall

evaluation of the student

c) Information overload (academic bulimia)

o there is clearly a cultural difference in the approach to assessment between the UK,

Australasia and the US

o the current assessment system at GUVS involves evaluation of the students during

terms 1 and 2 often using a variety of assessment tasks

o however, as noted above, these contribute a relatively minor proportion of the final

grade (15%); students then have a large final (professional) exam covering all the

material given in the course over the year (some courses still evaluate years 1 & 2

together!)



o although this system appears consistent with other veterinary schools at UK Universities

there are some potential disadvantages to this system

o the large amount of material covered in final exams strongly promotes superficial

and rote learning with regurgitation of material for the exams,

� students described this appropriately as “academic bulimia”

o in addition, students commented frequently they learnt strategically for final exams

(did not learn all the material and try to “guess” what might be included) and then

immediately forgot the material afterwards

o this observation appears to be corroborated by comments from the clinical staff

who did not think the students came to the clinical years prepared or with a working

knowledge of required material or skills

o furthermore, they commented on students lack of ability to integrate and apply

material to clinical cases

o there appeared to be a real dichotomy between not wanting to “dumb” down exams as

there is a concern this will equate to dumbing down student learning, yet the final

assessments appear to be promoting less effective learning (students deciding what

they will or won’t learn and hoping they “guess” right for the exam; just needing to

know half the material in order to pass; not being able to subsequently apply or

integrate the material)

o although it is important that students should be able to appreciate all the material in a

course and be able to integrate and apply it – do you have evidence this is being

achieved , particularly in courses presented in earlier years?

o interestingly, this method of assessment is partially being driven by external examiners,

who also commented in reports that it was important not to “dumb” down final exams,

to allow discrimination between students, and to demonstrate if they can “cope with”

the course and integrate all the material presented

o as noted earlier – evidently this is a UK phenomenon

o however, I would encourage GUVS to critically evaluate their current assessment

methods, potentially increase the value of earlier assessment tasks and decrease the

material included in final exams, so that improved student learning is achieved

o please note – at the University of Sydney no assessment may be worth more than

40%, which I think is a good rule to apply

d) Improved Practice

o there are a number of additional processes which may be included to enhance

assessment and student learning which include;

o better detection of students at risk of failure before the final exams and

implementation of remediation

� this process could decrease the number of resits, and therefore decrease staff

time for assessment



o formative assessment can provide strong, constructive feedback for students

and is used reasonably widely in the clinical years, but not in the earlier pre-

clinical years

o the staff are encouraged to include these assessment tasks in all years



Appendix 1: References and Resources

Relevant References for consideration in a Curriculum Review

1. Ames ER, Hooper BE, Low DG, Pollock RVH, Wyman M. Ninth Symposium workshop conclusion and

recommendations: Proceedings of the 9th Symposium on Veterinary Medical Education –

veterinarians for society in the 21st century. J Vet Med Educ 14: 72-81, 1987.

2. Anon. Proceedings of the 10th Symposium on Veterinary Medical Education: Implementing a vision

through strategic Action for the 21st century. J Vet Med Educ 16 (Special Issue): 1989.

3. Anon. Professional competencies of Canadian Veterinarians. Guelph ON: Ontario Veterinary

College, University of Guelph, 1996.

4. Anon. Proceedings of the 15th Symposium on Veterinary Medical Education: Strategic Alliances:

Bridges to the Future (1996) J Vet Med Educ 27(1): 1-22, 2000.

5. Black LS, Turnwald GH, Meldrum JB. Outcomes assessment in veterinary medical education. J Vet

Med Educ 29: 28-31, 2002.

6. Blackwell MJ. The 2001 Iverson Bell Symposium Keynote Address. Beyond philosophical differences:

the future training of veterinarians. J Vet Med Educ 28: 148-152, 2001.

7. Brown JP, Silverman JD. The current and future market for veterinarians and veterinary medical

services in the United States. J Amer Vet Med Assoc 215(2): 161-183, 1999.

8. Cardinet GH, Gourley IM, BonDurant RH, Cowgill LD, Stannard AA, McCapes RH, Smith BP, Rhode EA.

Changing dimensions of veterinary medical education in pursuit of diversity and flexibility in service

to society. J Am Vet Med Assoc 201(10): 1530-1539, 1992.

9. Cavalieri J. Curriculum Integration within the context of veterinary education. J Vet Med Educ 36(4):

388-396, 2009.

10. Chadderdon LM, King LJ, Lloyd JW. The skills, knowledge, aptitudes, and attitudes of successful

veterinarians: a summary of presentations to the NCVEI subgroup (Brook Lodge, Augusta, Michigan,

December 4, 2000). J Vet Med Educ 28: 28-30, 2001.

11. Coffman J. Implementation of educational initiatives and concluding commentary. J Vet Med Educ

16 (Special Issue): 69-70, 1989.

12. Collins GH, Taylor RM. Attributes of Australasian veterinary graduates: report of a workshop held at

the Veterinary Conference Centre, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney, January 28-

29, 2002. J Vet Med Educ 29: 71-72, 2002.

13. Cron Wl, Slocum JV, Goodnight DB, Volk JO. Executive summary of the Brakke Management and

Behavior Study. J Am Vet Med Assoc 217: 332-338, 2000.

14. Douglas JS. Think tank reacts to the KPMG. J Am Vet Med Assoc 216: 12-13, 2000.

15. Eyre P. Veterinary education with career emphasis: a partnership with private, public and corporate

veterinary practice. J Am Vet Med Assoc 200(3): 311-315, 1992.

16. Eyre P. Impact of curriculum dynamics on employment opportunities. J Am Vet Med Assoc 209:

209-212, 1996.

17. Eyre P. Engineering veterinary education. J Vet Med Educ 29: 195-200, 2002.



18. Eyre P, Nielsen NO, Bellamy JEC. Serving society first: a time for change in veterinary medicine. J

Am Vet Med Assoc 225: 40-41, (2004).

19. Feldman KA, Walters BK. Veterinarians and public practice at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College

of Veterinary Medicine: building on a tradition of expertise and partnership. J Vet Med Educ 35(2):

225-230.

20. Foreman JH, Morin DE, Graves TK, Mitchell MA, Zuckermann FA, Whitely HE. Illinois Integrated

Veterinary Professional Curriculum. In: Proceedings of the American Association Veterinary Medical

Colleges, Alexandria March 12-14, 2010.

21. Halliwell R. Accreditation of veterinary schools in the United Kingdom and the European Union: The

process, current issues and trends, and future concerns. J Vet Med Educ 31: 105-110, 2004.

22. Harasen GLG, Hagele WC. An alternative to undergraduate streaming and limited licensure. Can Vet

J 43: 191-192, 2002.

23. Hoblet KH, McCabe AT, Heider LE. Veterinarians in population health and public practice: meeting

critical national needs. J Vet Med Educ 30: 232-239, 2003.

24. Hooper BE. Curricular alternatives? Can veterinary colleges meet the challenge? J Vet Med Educ

14: 7-9, 1987.

25. Hooper BE. Ongoing curricular changes in veterinary medical colleges. J Vet Med Educ 21: 125-129,

1994.

26. Hooper BE. Internationalization of veterinary education. Fourteenth Symposium, Athens, Georgia,

June 29-July 1, 1996. J Vet Med Educ 23: 62-67, 1996.

27. Howl JC, Walters BK. Preparing today’s veterinarians for a non-traditional future. J Am Vet Med

Assoc 218: 199-201, 2001.

28. Karg M. Designated licensure – the case for specialization within the veterinary degree. J Am Vet

Med Assoc 217: 1792-1796, 2000.

29. Lavictoire S. Education, licensing, and the expanding scope of veterinary practice members express

their views. Can Vet J 44(4): 282-284, (2003).

30. Leighton FA. Veterinary Medicine and the Lifeboat test: a perspective on the social relevance of the

veterinary profession in the 21st century. J Vet Med Educ 31: 329-333, 2004.

31. Lewis RE, Klausner JS. Nontechnical competencies underlying career success as a veterinarian. J

Am Vet Med Assoc 222: 1690-1696, 2003.

32. Lorenz LD. Veterinary medical education in the 21st century: recommendations from the 9th

Symposium on Veterinary Medical Education. J Vet Med Educ 14: 89–92, 1987. 33. Lucke JN. Report of the RCVS working party on veterinary undergraduate education. Vet Rec 132:

312-316, 1993.

34. Marshak RR. Veterinary schools and the profession: a search for bearings in the new century. J Am

Vet Med Assoc 227: 1234-1238, (2005).

35. Nielsen, NO. Is the veterinary profession losing its way? Can Vet J 42: 439-445, 2001.

36. Nielsen, NO. Paradigm lost. J Vet Med Educ 32: 385-388, 2004.

37. Pappaioanou M. Editorial preface. An agenda for action: Veterinarians in global public health. J Vet

Med Educ 30(2): 105-109, 2003.



38. Phemister RD. Preparing veterinarians for the 21st century: conclusions from the Ninth Symposium

on Veterinary Medicine. J Vet Med Educ 14: 7-9, 1987.

39. Prescott JF, Baily J, Hagele WC, Lueng D, Lofstedt J, Radostits OM, Sandals D. CVMA Task Force on

“education, licensing, and the expanding scope of veterinary practice”. Can Vet J 43(11): 845-854,

(2002).

40. Pritchard WR. Future directions for veterinary medicine. Durham, NC: PEW National Veterinary

Medical Education Program, Institute for Policy Sciences and Public Affairs, Duke University, 1988.

41. Radostits O, Prescott JF. Further thoughts on whether the veterinary profession is losing its way.

Can Vet J 42: 701-702, 2001.

42. Rex MAE, Veterinary education in the world – changing attitudes. Aust Vet J 70: 369-372, 1993.

43. Rhind SM. Competence at graduation: implications for assessment. J Vet Med Educ 33(2): 172-175,

2006.

44. Shadduck JA. Challenges facing veterinary medical education and some strategies for the future. J

Vet Med Educ 21: 137-140, 1994.

45. Stone EA, Pritchard WR. Veterinary medical education: a changing future. J Vet Med Educ 21: 125-

129, 1994.

46. Turnwald GH, Sponenberg DP, Meldrum JB. DVM Pre-clerkship curriculum reform. Part I: Twenty

year literature overview of veterinary and allopathic medicine. J Vet Med Educ 35: 66-73, 2008a.

47. Turnwald GH, Sponenberg DP, Meldrum JB. DVM Pre-clerkship curriculum reform. Part III: A case

study at the Virginia Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine J Vet Med Educ 35: 91-101,

2008b.

48. Vecerek V. Two differentiated programs of veterinary medical education at the University of

Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences in the Czech Republic. J Vet Med Educ 33(2): 197-205,

2006.

49. Walsh DA, Osburn BI, Christopher MM. Defining the attributes expected of graduating veterinary

medical students. J Am Vet Med Assoc 219(10): 1358-1365, 2001.

50. Walsh DA, Murphy FA, Osburn BI, King L, Kelly AM. Editorial preface. An agenda for action:

veterinary medicine’s critical role in public health and defense and the obligation of academic

veterinary medicine to respond: executive summary. J Vet Med Educ 30(2): 92-95, 2003.

51. Walsh, DA. Clinical Tracking in Veterinary Education in North America: A status report Proceedings

Australian Veterinary Association, May 15-17, 2007.

52. Willis NG, Monroe FA, Potworowski JA, Halbert G, Evans BR, Smith JE, Andrews KJ, Spring L,

Bradbrook A. Envisioning the future of veterinary medical education: The Association of American

Veterinary Medical Colleges Foresight Project, Final Report. J Vet Med Educ 34(1 – Supplement), 3-5,

2007.

53. Wise JK, Kushman JE. Synopsis of US Veterinary Manpower Study: Demand and supply from 1980 –

2000. J Am Vet Med Assoc 187: 358-361, 1985.



Relevant Resources for consideration in a Curriculum Review

Note: I would like to acknowledge Dr. Rosanne Taylor who largely supplied these resources.

Culture change

Taylor, R.M. and Canfield, P. (2007) Learning to be a scholarly teaching faculty: cultural change through

shared leadership. In: Transforming a University: the scholarship of teaching and learning in practice.

Eds. A Brew and J Sachs, Ch 23, Sydney University Press

I have another article on cultural change in faculty – which outlines some of the initiatives the University

of Sydney found effective in building an innovative, professional, teaching culture even within an

environment of funding cuts and growth in student numbers. I can supply this if requested

Constructive alignment

Biggs work on constructive alignment (or now called “outcomes based teaching and learning – OBTL ”) is

some of the most accessible to academics starting the journey.

Biggs, J. B. and Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for Quality Learning at University: what the student does (3rd

ed.). Philadelphia: Open University Press.

A project at the City University Hong Kong also created many great resources for teachers and students

on OBTL- see these at:

http://www6.cityu.edu.hk/obtl/index.asp?PAGE=TG_QSTART

This project also led to major changes in curriculum design, a shift from exams as the dominant

assessment task, shift from teacher to course evaluation, and university wide staff development in

teaching.

Leadership in learning and teaching

A recent comprehensive study of the leadership of change in teaching in higher education including

many case studies -completed by Chris Knapper (and available free on line),

Research and Development Series. Departmental Leadership of Teaching in Research-intensive

environments G Gibbs, C Knapper, S Piccinin. HEA, 2009

https://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/programs/lead_teach/pdf/Leadership%20Manual.pdf

An Australian review on leadership has just been published by the ALTC (national centre for higher

education development)

http://www.altc.edu.au/resource-leadership-academic-staff-development-literature-review-qut-2009



The study on research done on the links between leadership of teaching, staff experiences of teaching

and student experiences of learning is published by Prosser, Trigwell, Ramsden et al is quite compelling

– it demonstrates the need to attend to a whole-of – department/college/faculty context when leading

change and to alignment of incentives and rewards for staff.

Martin, E., Trigwell, K., Prosser, M. and Ramsden, P. (2003). Variation in the experience of leadership of

teaching in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 28 (3), 247-259.

The UK and Australia now provide considerable leadership development training for higher education

(ALTC and HEA www.1994group.ac.uk/.../PM%20LFHE%20Article%20engage20.pdf)

Assessment and learning

This metastudy of assessment and its impact on learning should be a “must read” for every new

academic

Gibbs, G. & and Simpson, C. (2004). Conditions under which assessment supports student's learning.

Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31.

The University of Sydney has an interesting project on developing the assessment and teaching skills

provided by extramural partners who host students in work placements. A PhD student of Rosanne

Taylor’s has some upcoming publications on this program and its impact on learning and transition to

practice – should look out for these as they would be very valuable for the EMS program at GUVS. An

early publication is below:

Matthew SM. Baguley JA. Hawke CG. Taylor RM. Work-based Learning in Veterinary Science at The

University of Sydney. http://www.foh.usyd.edu.au/conf07/2007_EdHealth_Abstracts.pdf. Proceedings

of the 4th EdHealth Conference, November 2007, Paper 37. 2007

For a more complete Year 5 veterinary clinical placement learning and assessment description:

Quality assurance in veterinary science extramural placements. John Baguley and Grahame Feletti.

AUQA conference 2005

http://www.auqa.edu.au/auqf/pastfora/2005/program/papers/session_f5_paper.pdf

Graduate attributes projects

The veterinary schools in Australia developed a national set of graduate attributes (published in JVME

2002)



Attributes of Australasian veterinary graduates: report of a workshop held at the Veterinary Conference

Centre, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney, January 28-19, 2002 GH Collins and RM

Taylor

These are adapted by each school - University of Sydney graduate attributes for Veterinary science:

http://www.vetsci.usyd.edu.au/future_students/undergraduate/graduate_attributes.shtml

They form the basis for accreditation by our Australasian accreditation agency, VSAAC

Simon Barrie led the University o f Sydney Graduate Attributes project which has seen development of

graduate attributes for the whole institution, contextualized GA for each faculty/course, curriculum and

assessment resources for staff and case studies of good practice

http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/graduateAttributes/policy.htm

Simon Barrie has been leading a major national project to develop, articulate, embed, assess and

demonstrate outcomes of graduate attributes education in Universities. It builds on his PhD and

postdoctoral research on differences in conceptions and approaches to Graduate Attributes among

academics.

He has published some scholarly work on this, as well as the staff development articles

Barrie, S.C. (2006). Understanding what we mean by generic attributes of graduates. Higher Education,

51(2), 215-241

Barrie, S.C. (2007). A conceptual framework for the teaching and learning of graduate attributes. Studies

in Higher Education 32(4) 439-458

https://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/aboutus/SHE_2007_A%20Conceptual%20framework%20for%20the%20tea

cing%20and%20learning%20of%20GGA.pdf

There are many on line resources from this project which linked all Australian universities- this is a news

item

http://www.herdsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/HERDSA-News-Volume-31-No-3-December-2009-with-

banner.pdf

Evaluation of teaching

The article describing the process which was developed at the University of Sydney where there is a shift

from a focus on teacher evaluation to course evaluation:



Assessment &Evaluation in Higher Education Vol. 30, No. 6, December 2005, pp. 641 656 Early impact

and outcomes of an institutionally aligned, student focused learning perspective on teaching quality

assurance. Simon Barrie, Paul Ginns and Michael Prosser

http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/Teval/AEHE2005.pdf

An aligned, evidence-based approach to quality assurance for teaching and learning

Barrie S.C. and Prosser M. 2003

https://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/Teval/AUQABarrieProsser.pdf

A more recent article with the underpinning research :

Ginns, P., Prosser, M., & Barrie, S. (2007). Students’ perceptions of teaching quality in higher education:

The perspective of currently enrolled students. Studies in Higher Education, 32, 603-615.

Good resources for academics

These 3 texts are also ones we drew upon heavily for providing a conceptual framework for change at

the University of Sydney:

Prosser, M. and Trigwell, K. (1999). Understanding Learning and Teaching: The Experience in Higher

Education. Buckingham, UK,: SRHE/ Open University Press.

Ramsden, P. (1998). Learning to Lead in Higher Education. London, New York,: Routledge.

Ramsden, P. (2003). Learning to Teach in Higher Education (2nd ed.). London, New York,: Routledge



Appendix 2: Alternate course options offered at North American Colleges of Veterinary Medicine

University Years 1-3 Year 4 Comments

Auburn University several electives courses offered several elective rotations http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/index.pl/curriculum

Colorado State

University

elective options in years 1 & 2;

begin clinic duty in year 3

Senior practicum training

includes 3 tracks; large animal,

small animal and general

http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/cvmbs/ ProspectivePrevet.htm

Cornell University 30% of curriculum is

"distribution courses"

12 core rotations, 8 pathway

rotations, 3 elective rotations

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/admissions/curric.htm

Iowa State

University

unclear if electives are available four "tracks" outlined for clinical

blocks; electives also offered

http://vetmed.iastate.edu/academics/prospective-

students/curriculum

Kansas State

University no tracking 9 of 42 credits are elective http://www.vet.ksu.edu/handbook/curriculum/professional.htm

Louisiana State

University

electives available all years,

heavily emphasized during

Phase II (years 3 + 4)

numerous electives available http://www.vetmed.lsu.edu/admissions/curriculum.asp

Michigan State

University

2 'selective' credit hours in the

first 5 semesters

33 credits required, 27 credits

elective clerkships;

nb: curricular change beginning with c/o 2011; this new

curriculum is the one included here

Mississippi State

University multiple electives offered

non-core blocks may be filled

with advanced clinical rotations,

externships, electives, graduate

courses, etc.

http://www.cvm.msstate.edu/admissions/dvm_curriculum_5.pd

f

NC State

2 credits of "selectives"

required each of the first 6

semesters

"focus area" selected by student

determines required rotations

and gives priority for elective

blocks in that area

http://www.cvm.ncsu.edu/dvm/



Ohio State no tracking one-month elective 4th year on-

site or off-site http://www.vet.ohio-state.edu/1384.htm

Oklahoma State

University electives begin semester 3 core-electives based fourth year

http://www.cvhs.okstate.edu/index.php?option=com_content&

task=view&id=153&Itemid=293

Oregon State

University

electives available beginning

year 3, quarter 2

elective blocks available on-site

and perhaps off-site

http://oregonstate.edu/vetmed/students/current/curriculum;

http://oregonstate.edu/vetmed/sites/default/files/Electives09-

10.pdf

Purdue University no tracking tracking (6 clinical practice

tracks, 1 non-practice track) http://www.vet.purdue.edu/admissions/plan_of_study3-02.pdf

Texas A&M some elective options semesters

5 & 6

30 weeks core rotations; 12

weeks elective rotations; 4

weeks externship; 2 weeks

vacation

http://www.cvm.tamu.edu/dcvm/Curriculum/CurrOverView.sht

ml

Tufts University

electives; year 3: 2 weeks of

"advanced elective course

offerings"

39 / 61 weeks are core; 18

weeks of required elective

rotations

http://www.tufts.edu/vet/dvm/curriculum/

Tuskegee University No information available No information available http://www.tuskegee.edu/Global/category.asp?C=41703

UC Davis tracking tracking password protected curriculum site;

http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/Teaching.cfm

University of Florida no elective courses years 1 & 2 optional "focused

concentration" semester 5 - 9

http://www.vetmed.ufl.edu/college/documents/UF%20AVMA%

20COE%20Accreditation%20Self%20Study%20Report.pdf; begin

page 36

University of

Georgia No information available No information available http://www.vet.uga.edu/academic/

University of Illinois numerous elective options

tracking: small animal; equine;

food animal; general/mixed; zoo

med; non-practice

http://vetmed.illinois.edu/asa/curric.html; also of note:

http://www.news-

gazette.com/news/education/2009/03/08/new_vet_med_curric

ulum_plan_includes_animals_from_get-go



University of

Minnesota

select a track at the end of

semester four; electives year 3

based on declared track

elective rotations based upon

declared track

http://www.cvm.umn.edu/education/currentstudents/home.ht

ml

University of

Missouri - Columbia no tracking years 1 & 2

elective rotations for 2 clinical

blocks; 3 blocks of "free" time -

optional external work or

genuine free time to study, etc.

condensed at: http://cvm.missouri.edu/catalog/ page 24

University of

Pennsylvania

electives begin fall semester,

year 1

25 clinical rotation blocks - 6

foundation, 18 elective, 1

vacation

http://www.vet.upenn.edu/EducationandTraining/StudentLife/C

urriculum/tabid/313/Default.aspx

University of

Tennessee

elective opportunity begins

semester 4

no tracking; 2 "externship[s]"

appear to be the only electives

in the 4th year

http://www.vet.utk.edu/educational/curriculum.php

University of

Wisconsin -

Madison

elective courses begin in

semester 1

Select an "area of emphasis" -

food animal, large animal,

mixed, small animal, other;

required rotations vary by

emphasis

http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/Curriculum.38.1.html

VMRCVM tracking begins semester 3 tracking + electives in final year http://www.vetmed.vt.edu/acad/dvm/dvm_curric.asp

Washington State

University electives available

elective blocks vary by area of

clinical emphasis

http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/prospectiveStudents/Curriculum.a

spx

Western University PBL years 1 & 2; applied learning

year 3

No tracking; applied learning

rotations http://www.westernu.edu/xp/edu/veterinary/overview.xml

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