Learning: training and supporting students from all backgrounds to become future vets and animal scientists

To provide considerate, effective and sympathetic support for animals and their owners, the veterinary profession must work harder to reflect the diversity of the wider population. We believe it is essential to remove the financial and other barriers that prevent brilliant potential vets from choosing this as their career.

At Liverpool, our veterinary graduates have achieved a lifetime goal to become a member of the veterinary profession. In the future they will protect society from a host of threats to animal and human health, both at home and across the globe. They will help the world achieve food security and thereby peace, they will be the first to identify and the best qualified to fight the next pandemic. They are our best one-health warriors. They will care for your companion when all hope seems lost, and in what may be your darkest moment they will comfort you and help you heal as well.

- Paul Lunn, Dean, School of Veterinary Science, University of Liverpool

With your support, we will be able to:

• Enable more students from low-income backgrounds to access a life-changing education at Liverpool through scholarships. (£9,250 to fund one veterinary student per year)
• Provide further student hardship grants for students in crisis to cover their essentials, in response to a near doubling in demand related to the rising cost of living. This includes support through the Clare Harrison Memorial Fund, established in October 1995 to commemorate Liverpool vet student Clare Harrison, who was tragically killed as she began her fourth year at the school. (Average grant £1,000).
• Support students to gain required practical placement experience in veterinary practices by funding travel and accommodation during their extra-mural studies. (Average cost: £450 per week, and a total of £17,000 over the five years of the course)
• Open career opportunities for schoolchildren: We actively work to inspire students from a diverse range of backgrounds. We have created Vet Team in a Box, a package of educational content for under-represented groups age 11-14, and have established Destination Vets, a programme to give Year 12 students from under-privileged backgrounds practical, hands-on experiences as well as support with their applications to vet schools. Building on the success of this, we wish to create an outreach classroom as a base for local school groups to learn and visit our farms and facilities (Estimated cost £30,000).

Vet Team in a Box is an incredibly exciting educational initiative. This practical project aims to increase engagement directly with young people, within schools, using the national curriculum as a template.

- Linda Prescott-Clements, Director of Education at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons

School of Veterinary Science

We are a national leader in training UK undergraduates to become veterinary professionals, and the excellence of our programmes is recognised at home and abroad through our accreditations and rankings. Our students thrive with us, scoring very highly on the National Student Survey, and benefiting from a culture of care and trust with their teachers.