Robin Swann MLA, the Ulster Unionist Chairperson of Stormont’s Employment & Learning Committee, has asked the universities Minister for an update on the possibility of a veterinary medicine degree being delivered at one of Northern Ireland’s leading campuses. A course, admitting 75 students, is expected to be offered at the University of Ulster at Coleraine from October 2015.

Mr Swann, who represents North Antrim and who sits on the Assembly’s Agriculture and Rural Development committee, said;

“The course will be an innovative development in veterinary teaching using the facilities at Greenmount College and the AFBI labs in Stormont and Omagh as well as having a very close relationship with private practices in Northern Ireland. The proposal has received enthusiastic support from the veterinary bodies within Northern Ireland and I understand that CAFRE and Veterinary Sciences Division have also been extremely helpful.

“The focus of the course will be to produce highly motivated Veterinary Surgeons with a deep understanding of the Veterinary Science of food producing animals. This is a strategic project for Northern Ireland in that it allows local students to study in Northern Ireland for the first time while also attracting some of the brightest students from the rest of the UK to what will be a world leading course. The establishment of the Veterinary Faculty at the University of Ulster at Coleraine will also develop synergies within the University in the area of Pharmacology and Biomedical Sciences.

Ulster Unionist Councillor David Harding, himself a practising vet, said:

 "As Mayor of Coleraine I welcome this proposal in terms of introducing a major professional degree course to UUC and therefore emphasising the growing and permanent future of the University in Coleraine as well as the reflected prestige it brings to our town. I understand we are still waiting the final decision from DEL who have imposed unusually stringent administrative demands on the University. My view is that this course is of such strategic importance that it should be granted additional funding and student numbers above the current UUC allocation, bearing in mind that 100 per cent of our brightest and best students currently have to leave the Province to study Veterinary Medicine".