The Department of Veterinary Medicine

Photo of the exterior of the Vet School, University of Cambridge

Head of Department and Dean of the Vet School: Professor Mark Holmes

The Department of Veterinary Medicine at Cambridge is at the forefront of veterinary science and education and is a centre of excellence for teaching and research. Veterinary Medicine is a large, multidisciplinary department whose scientific activities are fully integrated into the whole University. The Department hosts Undergraduate and Postgraduate students and it operates small animal and equine hospitals and equine and farm animal clinical services in order to provide clinical teaching material. The majority of the research groups are housed in Department buildings on the University’s West Cambridge Site, and others are based across the Schools of Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences and Clinical Medicine.

To deliver excellence in veterinary education and biomedical research, and to address the challenges to the health and welfare of animals, humans and the environment in the 21st century.

The mission of the Department of Veterinary Medicine is to improve the health and welfare of animals and people in the context of the environment they live in and share through the provision of excellence in education, research, clinical practice and outreach. The Department is committed to the delivery of a world-class education that is based on scientific scholarship, and makes use of cutting edge instructional methodologies that are validated through outcomes assessment. Our researchers work at the forefront of the biomedical sciences, undertaking cross-disciplinary research to address the pre-eminent One Health challenges. Our graduate and post-graduate training programmes prepare the next generation of researchers, clinicians and clinician-scientists, and our clinics deliver state of the art medical and surgical treatments for companion animals, equines and food producing animals. The Department is committed to outreach activities that disseminate the results of our scholarship, that attract the best and the brightest students irrespective of background, and that inform and shape the future of veterinary medicine.

The VetMB programme was awarded 'Conditional Accreditation' by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) in November 2024. See our Accreditation page for full details.