A proliferation of newly proposed veterinary colleges
Universities from South Carolina to Utah have lined up to seek accreditation from the AVMA Council on Education
By Malinda Larkin
Published: 20 October 2023
Nearly a dozen newly proposed veterinary colleges have been announced in the past two years, which represents a sizeable potential increase to the existing 33 U.S. veterinary colleges. Some universities have already secured site visits from the AVMA Council on Education (AVMA COE) while others are just in the discussion stage.
All must seek accreditation from the AVMA COE, which is done by requesting a consultative site visit. The consultative site visit provides the proposed veterinary college with an unofficial report on the plan’s readiness to apply for a letter of reasonable assurance. Once any deficiencies in the plan have been addressed and document to the council, the proposed veterinary college can then apply for a comprehensive site visit to determine if the plan meets the criteria for a letter of reasonable assurance.
A letter of reasonable assurance is not a pre-accreditation action but indicates that the proposed veterinary college may gain accreditation in the future if the program completes all the plans it presents to the AVMA COE. Receiving this letter allows the institution to begin enrolling students.
The 11 proposed veterinary programs are as follows:
To see the full version of this story, visit the AVMA News website.
