European accreditation of our Veterinary Programme

Accreditation is a sign of our programme’s quality. It enables our graduates to practise and continue their professional development in a competitive market anywhere in Europe.

Accreditation also provides us with the possibility of offering specialist European programmes approved by the European Board of Veterinary Specialisation (EBVS). The specialist programmes are divided into a one-year internship and three-year residency. You can read more on Specialist Education – EBVS - European Board of Veterinary Specialists.

Hypothetically, SLU could provide a veterinary program without being EAEVE accredited, as long as we are authorized by the Swedish Board of Agriculture. However, this is not an option. We need to be EAEVE accredited to be able to offer European specialist programs approved by the European Board of Veterinary Specialisation (EBVS).

Our current status is Pending Accreditation and it extends until March 2026.

The veterinary programme accreditation process follows clear process with compulsory components stipulated in the standard operating procedure (SOP) which is summarised below.

Request for full visitation – The institution must first apply to be evaluated. In December 2022, SLU applied to undergo evaluation for continued accreditation.

Self-evaluation report (SER) – The institution will then self-evaluate and summarise this in a report. You can find SLU's Self-Evaluation Report (SER) a bit further down in the information box.

Full visitation – An evaluation team, appointed by EAEVE, visits the institution to evaluate the education on-site. This should be carried out when the educational activities are in full swing, meaning when most staff and students are present. 

Visitation report – After the visit, the delegation writes a report, which includes recommendations among other things. Within 14 days after the evaluation is completed, we have the opportunity to read the report and correct any factual errors.

ECOVE decision – The European Committee of Veterinary Education (ECOVE) then meets and decides on the accreditation, based on the institution's self evaluation and the recommendations of the evaluation team's report. If they find that the institution has one or more major deficiencies, the institution is given the status of Pending Accreditation. If the institution is found to comply with the standard, it is given the status of Accredited. Decisions are communicated within two days of the meeting. 

Re-visitation – In case of Pending Accreditation status, a re-visitation shall be arranged, to evaluate whether the deficiencies have been corrected. ECOVE then makes a new decision. This must take place within two years after the Full Visitation.

While the major deficiencies are being addressed, the programme remains accredited. The pending accreditation status does not affect the students' ability to work in the EU and the UK, nor does it affect their chances of being admitted to specialist programs (Diplomates).

If the veterinary education establishment chooses not to rectify the shortcomings, or if we do not follow the regulations for re-visitation, they will automatically be allocated the ‘non-accredited’ status.

If the European Committee of Veterinary Education (ECOVE) were to assess that we have one or more major deficiencies, we will be given the status of Pending Accreditation. We must then correct the deficiencies, conduct a Re-visitation and get a new decision within 2 years. Pending Accreditation status is equivalent to being accredited. You can read more about this under the question How does accreditation work?

The faculty management is determined that the program should be accredited.

The basic requirement is that newly graduated veterinary surgeons from the programme are to have ‘day one competences’ meaning they are safe and competent to practise on the first day after completing their studies. There are further formal requirements that must be met to obtain accreditation.

Organisation

The University Animal Hospital (UDS) and VH Faculty must be one unit, both in terms of the organisation and finances and it must have a common strategy for the Veterinary Medicine programme. The integration of UDS and VH faculty as of January 1, 2024, addresses this requirement. The UDS operations are added as an appendix to the faculty's strategy for the period 2021-2025.

Roles

The programme director of studies must be a veterinary surgeon; at SLU this is Senior Lecturer Helene Hamlin. UDS must also have a chief veterinary officer; at SLU this is Bodil Ström Holst, Head of Department and Maria Svensson, Deputy Head of Department for Animal Care.

Out of hours emergency service

Students must have experience of working with emergency cases, both in the evenings and during the night. Their tasks must include stabilising animals, pain relief, palliative care and euthanasia. The University Animal Hospital must therefore be in operation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during the semester. The University Animal Hospital must have an on-call service for admitting sick small animals and horses around the clock.

Number of patients

There are requirements on how many patients students must work with during their studies. Together with those responsible for each organisation, the workgroup will conduct an inventory to determine whether we already meet the targets for each species, or if action needs to be taken. There are established targets for both pre-clinical (pathology) and clinical settings for both working and companion animals as well as animals raised for food.

The following areas will be evaluated as part of the accreditation process:

• targets, organisation and quality assurance policy
• finances
• curriculum
• premises and equipment
• animals and teaching materials of animal origin
• teaching and learning resources
• student admissions, progressions and wellbeing
• systems and guidelines for student assessments
• academic and support staff
• research programmes
• continuing professional development, and
• third-cycle courses and study programmes.

We learnt a great deal from the previous accreditation process, which resulted in SLU being without accreditation for a period. This time, we placed a lot of focus on the internal preparatory process, where we worked with our self-evaluation report in a completely different way.

University management will receive regular information about the process. The work group will continually consult with faculty management on how to rectify any shortcomings that come to light.

A workgroup is leading the accreditation process at SLU. Professor Ivar Vågsholm has been appointed the liaison officer for visitation. He must ensure that we follow the implementation of EAEVE’s standard operating procedure (SOP). He is also responsible for a number of practicalities related to the evaluation.

Professor Henrik Rönnberg is in charge of writing and approval of our self-evaluation report.

The workgroup also includes representatives from VMF and SLUSS. Linda Ferngren will provide the group with administrative support. 

The workgroup is responsible for the process and evaluation – not for ensuring that the organisation will meet the EAEVE standards. There will be dialogues with the responsible managers to work with any problem areas in order to guarantee SLU’s accreditation.

The following people have an advisory role and must be kept informed throughout the process:

• Pär Forslund, Deputy Vice-Chancellor
• Rauni Niskanen, Dean of VH Faculty
• Johanna Penell, Vice Dean responsible for courses and programmes
• Helene Hamlin, Programme Director of Studies for the Veterinary Medicine Programme 
• Karin Vargmar, Deputy Programme Director of Studies for the Veterinary Medicine Programme