FAQs

The Academy will continue to develop and launch courses on a regular basis. New courses will be announced on the homepage, and you will see them within your ‘My Academy’ area when they become available. By providing us with feedback through our surveys, you can help to guide the courses that will be available on the Academy in the future.

You will be asked to provide your availability for a period of several months. This information will then be used to work out a date that is best for all involved. We aim to identify a hearing date within three months of a matter being referred, however this is not always possible due to the availability of all those involved. Once a hearing date has been identified on, you will be notified.

The length of time that a hearing takes varies according to the number of witnesses being called, some hearings can last 2 or 3 days and some can last 3 weeks. You will not be required to attend for the whole hearing and will only be asked to attend on the day you will be giving your evidence. You will not be required to stay at the hearing after you have given your evidence. Nearer the hearing, you will be told the exact date and time you need to be there.

RCVS Council’s recommendations, including those to replace elections with an independent appointment process, will be consulted on during 2024 before any final decision on what it might recommend to government.

Changing the composition of RCVS governance would require new legislation. We therefore do not anticipate any amendment to Council’s composition until a replacement to the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 is introduced and ratified by Parliament. At present, there is no timetable for this.

At present there is one exam per year. The written component is normally held in Spring and is run remotely, allowing candidates to take the examination securely using their own computer from a suitable location of their choosing.

The OSCE is held at Harper Adams University in Autumn.

Specific dates are provided to candidates once they are available.

We don’t accredit any CPD courses ourselves but there are various sources of information, such as the CPD Events Calendar published in In Practice. The BVA and BVNA organise CPD events, as do universities and many commercial CPD providers.

The RCVS Knowledge Library can help you meet your continuing professional development targets. The Library holds over 30,000 books, reports and conference proceedings, all available for postal loan upon request. In addition, for a small annual membership fee, library members can enjoy access to the Library's range of electronic resources from their own computer. This includes being able to download full-text articles from a wide range of journals and carry out your own literature searches with access to millions of abstracts.

Library membership also provides substantial discounts on services such as photocopies of journal articles, postal loans, literature searches and quarterly updates. Quarterly updates are lists of bibliographic references of recently published articles on a particular subject.

To make the event more accessible, we will be holding Veterinary Nurses Day in different parts of the country, the next event will be held: 

• 10 December - Bristol Beacon, Trenchard Street, Bristol, BS1 5AR

The venue is conveniently located close to various public transport links, and we would encourage you to use public transport to travel to the event where possible.

For directions, please see the venue's website. 

Both graduates and VetGDP Advisers should log into the VetGDP through the desktop 1CPD link, which you will find in the top right hand corner of the RCVS website. The button for the VetGDP can be found on the top bar.

If you’re a graduate, you can record your reflections, feedback and progress against the different activities you and your VetGDP Adviser have identified as being part of your role. These activities are known as Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs), and are simply high-level descriptions of the different activities.

As a VetGDP Adviser you will have access to the platform to support your graduate(s), with the ability to add your comments on either observed cases or activities, or progress review discussions. You will also be able to consider the evidence supporting progress across all activities with your graduate towards the end of the programme, to agree when to submit the portfolio to the RCVS for final peer review.

Hearings are normally held at locations in London (although occasionally hearings are remote where necessary) and in most cases witnesses are required to attend in person. If you will have difficulties attending in person, remote attendance may be possible. In order to attend remotely, we will need you to supply evidence to explain why you cannot attend in person. There is a formal legal procedure to go through to permit a witness to give their evidence remotely. Therefore, if you think you may need to attend remotely, please contact us immediately so this can be discussed further.

• Harper Adams University - You can find out more about Harper Adams University’s postgraduate courses on their website.
• Glasgow University - You can find out more about Glasgow University’s postgraduate courses on their website.
• Royal Veterinary College - You can find out more about the Royal Veterinary College's postgraduate courses on their website.
• University of Central Lancashire in conjunction with Myerscough College - You can find out more about the University of Central Lancashire in conjunction with Myerscough College's postgraduate courses on their website.
• Hartpury University - You can find out more about Hartpury University's postgraduate courses on their website.

It is expected that further providers and subject areas will become available over the coming months.

You can access further information on the CertAVN, and VN Futures, on the VN Futures website.

All of them. If your employment requires you to use your Veterinary degree and/or be MRCVS then you should participate in the VetGDP. If you are not sure how it would apply then please contact [email protected]