A picture (in numbers) of the veterinary profession and education in the UK.
I paid particular attention to Table 10 (pp10-11), showing the number of people enrolled at all seven UK veterinary schools and the number of veterinary degrees granted in 2012. Those numbers would be 4,790 and 819, respectively. The table is broken down by school, gender and origin of student. In all seven UK veterinary programs there were a total of 780 overseas students enrolled and 110 were granted degrees. For just the three UK schools accredited by the COE, those numbers fall to 717 and 102. Keep in mind, that's all overseas students, not just US.
Here are some more numbers that make up the picture of practice in the UK, these from a survey released in April by BEVA (British Equine Veterinary Association):
"Of the 819 new veterinary graduates in the UK in 2012, it is conservatively estimated that...
...between 10 and 15 per cent intend to work in equine practice. The extrapolated results of the (BEVA) survey suggest that in 2012 there was less than 1% growth in full time equine vet positions and as few as 24 new permanent jobs available in the UK. "
So, conservatively, 82 to 123 new graduates wanted to go into equine practice in the UK in 2012.. but there were just 24 jobs.
Contrast this with the far rosier picture painted by the RCVS, Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. This is the regulatory agency responsible for overseeing education and licensure for vets in the UK. According to a press release by RCVS today,
"an average of 94% of graduates seeking a role in clinical practice obtained work within six months of starting to look.... did not change significantly over the five years under consideration, despite UK graduate numbers increasing by around a quarter during the same period..."
Something don't add up here. I'm not saying anybody's numbers are wrong, just that they don't add up to the picture we see.
These numbers are from a survey done for RCVS by the London Institute for Employment Studies, a nonprofit but self funded organization that calls itself the UK’s leading independent centre for research and evidence-based consultancy in employment, labour market and human resource policy and practice. Kind of a British IHS, it looks like. Anyway, while the actual results of the survey "will be available in due course" here is a summary of some of the survey results.
