RCVS hosts international Global Accreditation Meeting

On 19th and 20th April, RCVS hosted a meeting of international veterinary accrediting bodies to compare notes on the standards and procedures used to accredit veterinary degree courses.

RCVS Officers met with senior representatives from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council (AVBC), which accredits degree courses in Australia and New Zealand, and the European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education (EAEVE).

Comparing notes on the various accreditation standards, it was recognised that although terminology might differ in places, there was significant agreement on the standards applied by each organisation when evaluating veterinary degrees across the three continents. Each organisation used broadly similar procedures, and it was accepted that there was scope for each organisation to harmonise their systems further over time.

Accepting the benefits of movement of competent professionals for the advancement of veterinary medicine internationally, there was agreement that efforts should be made to limit the bureaucratic burden of accreditation visits for applicant institutions that are subject to multiple accreditation.

There are already agreements in place between RCVS and AVBC, whereby each organisation sends an observer on the other's visits, and visit reports are exchanged, enabling each organisation to reach its own independent decision on accreditation. RCVS undertakes joint visits to UK vet schools with EAEVE ensuring commonality with European standards.

There is also an agreement between RCVS and AVMA, enabling RCVS to consider AVMA accreditation reports and thereby facilitating the registration of north American graduates if they have satisfactory scores in the north American licensing examinations.

However, as the AVMA is not itself a registration body for the USA (licences to practise are issued by the various state boards to graduates of AVMA accredited universities, who also need to pass the American licensing examination), it is not in a position to negotiate mutual recognition agreements with other countries, although it does accredit a small number of veterinary schools outside the US. Three of the UK veterinary schools have been accredited in the UK: Glasgow, Edinburgh and the RVC.

Discussions also touched on the assessment of clinical competence, and the extent to which diversity within the veterinary curriculum could be accommodated in the various accreditation systems.

A list of all the representatives who attended the meeting is available in PDF format (PDF 91Kb)