Surrey news follows lively BVA Congress discussion

The building of a controversial new veterinary school at the University of Surrey has been given planning permission by Guildford Borough Council.

Since plans for the new School of Veterinary Medicine were announced a year ago, it has been the subject of much debate among the veterinary profession, with fears that it could result in too many veterinary graduates flooding the job market.

Embracing the "One Health - One Medicine philosophy", the new school hopes to foster collaborations between research and healthcare for humans and animals.

The university's plans include the construction of three new buildings on its Manor Park campus. A flagship small animal clinical skills centre is set to contain a haptics laboratory, with simulators to help students develop skills using the sense of touch in clinical diagnosis.

A state-of-the-art large animal clinical skills centre will be built on the site, which also includes a haptics teaching area to educate students about animal anatomy using simulators and livestock holding and handling areas.

All three buildings have been designed by Devereux Architects and work is expected to begin at the site next year, culminating in autumn 2015.

Surrey's first set of students will be accepted onto the school's veterinary course from September 2014.

Professor Lisa Roberts, executive dean at the university's faculty of health and medical sciences, commented: "We are delighted to be granted planning permission for this exciting project…Work on our new buildings can now begin and we look forward to welcoming the first cohort of students on our Veterinary Medicine and Science degree next September."

Many in the industry have raised concerns that another vet school will lead to more graduates than available jobs. Further fears were sparked among members of the profession after the Universities of Ulster and Aberystwyth recently announced that they too have plans to open vet schools.

The issue formed the subject of a debate at the BVA Congress in London last week, with veterinary graduate Christopher Ogden and Professor the Lord Trees speaking on each side of the argument, before opening up the lively discussion to delegates.

Whilst Mr Ogden asserted that job satisfaction could suffer as a result of graduates being forced into roles outside practice, Prof Lord Trees argued that we, as a profession, should look for opportunities in the situation, as well as threats.