BVSc Veterinary Science

The Bachelor of Veterinary Science (BVSc) programme offers world-leading scientific and clinical training in veterinary medicine. The BVSc is internationally accredited and on graduation, you will be qualified to practise as a veterinary surgeon in the UK (RCVS), Ireland and Europe (EAEVE), Australia and New Zealand (AVBC), South Africa (SAVC), North America (AVMA) and many other countries around the world.

Our students get to enjoy a vibrant university experience for the first three years of the course, based at the central Liverpool campus. Years 4 and 5 are based at our Leahurst site, on the stunning Wirral, with North Wales on your doorstep.

Liverpool vet school offers in-depth clinical and research-based training and a hugely motivated, dedicated teaching staff. The university provides all of its own teaching across all five years of the course, using our two farms (covering beef and dairy cattle, pigs and sheep), our own teaching horses and our own teaching clinics. Across these sites our students have access to over 10,000 small animal cases a year, and over 5,000 equine and large animal cases.

Programme in detail

Our integrated spiral curriculum offers an innovative approach to teaching and learning, where subjects are revisited year on year with an increasing focus on clinical application as the course progresses.

Your study will commence with animal handling, the science of normal structure and function, the welfare and husbandry of animals and the incidence and distribution of disease.

You will continue to build on this knowledge in second year, adding pathology and parasitology, further practical techniques and learning about veterinary research in our research skills course. In third year, you will study pathology and parasitology in more detail start the clinical science course and complete a research project, allowing you to study an area of interest in much more detail.

You will begin learning and using clinical skills from day one, taking advantage of our dedicated facilities to practise the essential techniques required in every field of veterinary practice such as bandaging, injection technique, lab analysis, suturing and knot tying.

Our professional skills thread also starts in year one. You will learn how to communicate effectively with others, in both written and spoken form, and you will get to put this into practice with professional actors who act as your clients in simulated veterinary consultations. You will also learn about the importance of practice finance and how veterinary businesses operate.

In fourth year, you will move to Leahurst. You will complete a lecture based clinical theory course by the February of fourth year and then complete 31 weeks of clinical rotations spread fairly equally between production animal, equine and small animals with a dedicated rotation in exotics medicine. Over 90% of rotations take place at the Leahurst Campus, with students additionally gaining front line experience in commercial practices during their 20 weeks of extra-mural studies (EMS).

Following your clinical rotations, you will have the chance to choose a 3-week elective subject to study in greater depth. You also have the opportunity to take a year out from the veterinary science programme to study in China or for an additional, intercalated degree. A wide variety of subjects are available, both at Liverpool and other universities in the UK and abroad.

What you'll learn

• A core foundation in basic and clinical science which will support development of clinical reasoning and practical skills
• Animal handling and essential techniques required in every field of veterinary practice such as physical examination, injection technique and lab analysis.
• An understanding of the role of animals in human health
• The role of vets in the treatment and prevention of disease in individual animals and populations
• Development of professional skills to enable engagement with all aspects of veterinary science and clinical practice.
• The knowledge, expertise and attitudes required for a 21st century career in clinical or academic veterinary practice, business or scientific research.