A new multi-million-pound learning facility has all the ingredients in place to help combat a national vet shortage, one of the profession’s most senior figures has said.
Professor Lord Sandy Trees is confident the Harper and Keele Veterinary School brings together the right blend of courses and student experiences to produce the calibre of candidates the sector needs.
The cross-party peer, who is the only vet in the House of Lords and former President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, was speaking at the official opening of the £20 million school, which is based at Keele University.
The building is already home to hundreds of students who are benefiting from its high-quality facilities as they train to become the next generation of veterinary professionals.
Featuring brand new anatomy and clinical skills laboratories, the joint venture between Harper Adams University and Keele University also boasts modern teaching facilities, a lecture theatre, and break-out areas for group study.
Lord Trees said: “We have a national veterinary shortage in the UK. Practices find it difficult to recruit; Government finds it difficult to recruit. This has an impact on some of the challenges we face as a country.
“Many of these problems relate to the food chain, so I am particularly interested to see what is being done here in regards to farm to fork industries and public health, which will be hugely important in the future.”
He added: “The combination of Keele and Harper brings great synergy with the combination of life sciences and medicine at Keele and the animal science and agricultural technology at Harper. That creates a sound basis from which to produce really terrific graduates.”
Professor Jonathan Wastling, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Keele University, said: “Together with the state-of-art farm animal and veterinary education centre at Harper Adams, the Harper and Keele Veterinary School offers some of the most up-to-date and comprehensive facilities for veterinary education in the UK.
“The building will also provide a physical environment to enable us to work closely in partnership with the veterinary industry on the latest innovations in veterinary education and research.”
After officially opening the facility, Lord Trees toured the building alongside Professor Trevor McMillan OBE, Vice-Chancellor at Keele, and spoke to some of the school’s current students about their careers.
