Dean letter from Anne-Marie Dalin

Anne-Marie Dalin is Professor at the Department of Clinical Sciences and Vice Dean, responsible for education at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences.

The University Education Board (UN) decided at the May meeting that SLU should continue to use the same education areas as the higher education institutions under the Ministry of Education (social sciences / humanities, science / technology and design). According to the proposal, SLU should use a classification according to a standard (combination of different areas). The Faculty board has been given the opportunity to comment on the proposal and discussed it at the last meeting. For VH, the proposal applies to the Animal Science programs. Veterinary Medicine and Veterinary Nurse programs are not included in this proposal because the costs of infrastructure for these programs are high (especially for the veterinary program). Our deputy vice chancellor wants first to get time to investigate that part. In addition, SLU is alone in Sweden in having these types of education.

According to the Swedish Higher Education Authority, UKÄ, universities now have to provide quality assurance at basic, advanced and postgraduate level of education. A model for SLU has been developed and decided by our vice chancellor. How the model will work for the different education programs should be investigated through pilot studies. At VH the Animal Science Master Program has been selected for the pilot. UKÄ will in 2019 follow up the quality assurance of SLU's education programs.

The student applications for the coming academic year shows that Veterinary Nurse (DSS) and Veterinary programs still are the most popular programs at SLU. This autumn 80 students will be admitted to the DSS education, an increase of 100% since 2014. DSS are highly sought after by employers. The interest in the Animal science agronomy program has, on the other hand, decreased and therefore SLU and VH have to work more actively with student recruitment.

SLUSS, the cooperation between SLU students' unions, has now appointed a new chairman for a one year period. It is veterinary student Stina Andersson. This is an important position because SLUSS Chairman is a member of the SLU Board, the UN, and of the Vice-chancellor's Executive Council. Stina has previously been chairman of the education committee at VMF. VH wishes Stina good luck and looks forward to good cooperation.

It's finally time for recovery and vacation. Thank you all - the teachers and everyone else at VH who in various ways contributed to teaching during the past year - you are doing a great job!

I wish you all a nice and relaxing holiday!
Anne-Marie Dalin