The training of veterinary students in line with the expectations described by the RCVS involves an intense period of study over five or six years. Students gain competency to diagnose and treat all species of animals and they must be able to do this with a high level of independence. Personal and professional skills such as communication and business skills are increasingly included in the core curriculum components. Curricular philosophies vary across the schools from a more traditional discipline-based approach to a modular body system format with varying levels of clinical integration. A key component of all veterinary curricula is Extra Mural Studies (EMS) – multiple weeks spent on placement outside of term time activities initially in animal production establishments and later in clinical practice. The final year of most veterinary curricula is lecture-free and based in a university-delivered clinical environment which covers a range of disciplines and species.
There was an agreement to establish and support a working group with cross-school representation. The group was tasked with delivering a proposal for developing in parallel both a shared digital repository and systems for the delivery of items as appropriate for each individual school. Learning from both the UMAP project and the proposed structure of the UKCDR the repository would contain a large number of high-quality items that conform to best practice and that have been subject to a process of rigorous and ongoing review. The availability of a pool of high quality items would also support assessment for learning through higher-level functionality such as curriculum mapping and delivery of feedback aligned to learning objectives or outcomes.
The project was carried out in phases: a scoping exercise training workshops an OSCE focus stage and preliminary development of an agreement between the schools to facilitate sharing.
