Written question WQ85930

As autonomous bodies decisions about course provision and programmes of study are matters for university governing bodies. Welsh Ministers have no powers to intervene.

Welsh students are able to study veterinary medicine in Wales through a programme offered by the Aberystwyth School of Veterinary Science (ASVS) delivered in partnership with the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), part of the University of London. The School welcomed its first cohort of students on its BVSc Veterinary Science Degree in September 2021. The degree course runs over five-years with students spending the first two years at Aberystwyth University before completing the final three years at RVC's campus in Hertfordshire.

I met with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales and Trefnydd earlier this year to discuss funding for the ASVS and explore how funding could be made available to support the programme and enable students to complete their degree in Wales. We acknowledged the current severe shortage of vets in Wales, in common with the rest of the UK, and recognised a veterinary school is a valuable addition to the higher education offer in Wales and invaluable for the profession, agricultural industry and pet owners as well as addressing the demand for study through the medium of Welsh. Options are still being explored.

For academic year 2022/23, eligible Welsh students undertaking full-time veterinary medicine/science as a first undergraduate degree in the UK, can access our generous undergraduate student support package. It guarantees support equivalent to the National Living Wage, with the highest levels of grant being targeted to those students most in need. In recognition of the need for more vets veterinary courses are also included in the list of exceptions, those excluded from the rules relating to previous study, enabling students to access a maintenance loan only when studying veterinary science as a second degree.