School of Veterinary Medicine and Science

How to apply

You must meet the minimum academic requirements as well as demonstrating the appropriate attributes required to be a veterinary professional.

Applications must be submitted through UCAS by the 16 October. Offers will only be made after a successful interview and assessment.

You should include all qualifications you have completed and any that you are currently studying. Only four of your five choices can be used for veterinary courses. Your fifth choice can either be used to apply for a different degree course or left blank.

How our admissions process works

We encourage a diverse range of applicants to apply for our veterinary courses. We particularly welcome applicants with ability and commitment, but whose circumstances will make such studying difficult. Our admissions process has been designed to measure a range of personal attributes and practical skills including animal orientation, communication, enthusiasm and potential, as well as academic ability.

A fair and equal admissions process

When applying you will be considered solely on your academic ability, personal qualities and potential, regardless of gender, ethnic or national origin, age (subject to the University regulations on minimum age), disability, religion, sexual orientation or any other irrelevant distinction.

Your application will be reviewed based on your attributes and skills and how they align to both the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) day one competencies and code of professional conduct.

A decision on your application will be made through comparison with other candidates, rather than on an individual threshold basis and will therefore fluctuate between application cycles. Records will be kept of all stages of your application so that they can be scrutinised later if necessary.

You are expected to not share any element of our admissions process with others as to do so may jeopardise your own position.

Continually reviewing our process

Our admissions process is supervised by the School's Admissions Sub-Dean, ensuring we adhere to the University's Admissions Service Level Agreement. In addition, we also have an Admissions Committee who provide an overview of the entire admissions process. This Committee is coordinated by the Admissions Manager with the Admissions Sub-Dean as the Chair.

The committee meets on an annual basis to review statistical data from the previous year’s admissions, and the process for the forthcoming session will be discussed and agreed. The committee is made up of a diagonal slice of University staff, external veterinary practitioners and key stakeholders, Further information can be found in the Terms of Reference.

Our assessment guidelines are revised annually and routinely issued to everyone involved in the selection process. New assessors and interviewers undergo training and orientation, which includes equality and diversity.

Statistical data from applicants will be collated annually to monitor diversity, for example:

  • ethnicity
  • gender
  • disadvantaged backgrounds

This allows us to monitor the admissions process and ensure that there is no unfair discrimination.

Phases of the admissions process

We will send important information during the early stages of your application, and reminders to the email address that you’ve provided in your UCAS application. Your application to the University may be affected if you do not respond.

We will contact you from time to time using the following email addresses:

  • veterinary-enquiries@nottingham.ac.uk
  • veterinary-admissions@nottingham.ac.uk
  • mhssupport@nottingham.ac.uk

Please add these addresses to your contact list so that emails sent from the University aren’t rejected or filtered into your junk or spam folder by your email provider.

All correspondence should be between the applicant and the University. We do not discuss applications with third parties, for example parents and careers advisors.

The following reviews take place simultaneously:

  • Academic Review
  • Widening Participation and Work Experience
  • Online Assessments

Academic Review

Once we receive your application though UCAS, we will review it to check that you meet the minimum academic standards or are undertaking the relevant qualifications to do so. We do not consider predicted grades. Due to the integrated structure of the course, we do not accept applicants for transfers into the veterinary programme. Applicants who do not intend to complete the degree programme in which they are enrolled must apply before beginning their second year of study. 

We will then score your academic abilities that we consider necessary for a veterinary career. This will be based on a review of your completed qualifications, personal statement and academic reference and will review:

  • knowledge and scholastic ability
  • intellectual ability and style
  • basic numeracy
  • literacy, verbal skills and good knowledge of the English language

We consider one resit attempt per subject for our D100 and D104 courses, but we do not consider any further resits after the second attempt. We do not consider resits for our D190 course.

If you do not achieve entry on the first attempt, we will consider a second UCAS application, but subsequent applications will not be considered.

We assume, unless you provide evidence to the contrary, that you have already applied for compensation for adverse factors including ill-health, dyslexia or bereavement and this is reflected in your exam results.

If your first language is not English, you are expected to have taken or be taking suitable English Language qualifications. The following qualifications will meet our minimum requirements:

  • IELTS - 7.5 with no less than 7.0 in each element

The typical academic requirements for our three courses can be found on the following course pages

Widening Participation (WP) and work experience (via online survey)

You will be asked to complete an online survey to supply information about the work experience that you have undertaken and your Widening Participation (WP) circumstances. You have only two weeks to complete the survey and a reminder will be sent after one week. If after two weeks you have not completed the survey, your application will be declined.

Emails detailing how to complete this information are usually sent within one week of submission of a UCAS application. If you submit an application but do not receive an email to request your WP and work experience information by 20 October you should contact the Admissions Office.

Information is requested to identify any potential disadvantaging circumstances that may make progression onto the veterinary course difficult. These are reviewed alongside data provided on your UCAS form.

At this stage your application is reviewed to ensure that you have gained at least 5 weeks of work experience. This can include: 

All experience needs to be completed within three years prior to application and by the 15 October application deadline. Work experience booked after this date will not be taken into consideration. We do not accept submission of references, journals and portfolios associated with work experience.

If you're applying for the BVM BVS with integrated BVMedSci including a Preliminary Year (D104), and your UCAS personal statement is not veterinary-specific you will need to provide a separate veterinary focussed personal statement, in less than 4,000 characters, including spaces alongside your application and email it to the Admissions Office.

Online Assessments

The Situational Judgement Test is only accessible through an online questionnaire, which we will email to you after the 15 October application deadline. You will have two weeks to complete the survey, and a reminder will be sent after one week. If after the two-week period you have not completed the survey, your application will be declined.

Situational Judgement Test

Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) assess your judgement in situations you will encounter while studying veterinary medicine. It assesses key attributes identified as important for you as a veterinary student. The test will evaluate your interpersonal skills and ethical values rather than knowledge or clinical skills. You will complete a set of hypothetical but relevant scenario-based, multiple choice questions associated with the veterinary profession. Your answers will be evaluated to build a picture of your situational judgement in that context.

The SJT evaluates four attributes:

  • empathy and building client relationships
  • professional integrity and trust
  • resilience
  • teamwork

A rating is used from a scale of 1 to 4 where you will be asked to either:

  • rate the appropriateness of a series of options in response to the scenario
  • rate the importance of a series of options

Your responses will be evaluated against a pre-determined automated scoring system. You must complete the SJT for further review and short listing for interview. It should take no longer than 30 minutes to complete the SJT and it must be completed in one sitting.

Interview Assessment

You will be ranked based on your overall score of the online assessments and the highest ranked will invited to attend our Interview Assessment. The assessments will take place on Microsoft Teams and identify if you:

  • have the ability to cope with the course
  • are motivated towards a career in veterinary medicine and surgery
  • have insight into the implications of this career choice
  • have or appear to have the potential to acquire the personal skills expected of veterinary practitioners
  • are suitable for admission to the University of Nottingham's School of Veterinary Medicine and Science

No student is admitted without interview and assessment.

The interview will normally be conducted by a staff member and either Nottingham alumni or an associate vet. Usually, at least one will be a vet and one a member of academic staff. The assessment will involve an interview lasting approximately 30 minutes and will assess your:

  • motivation, insight into a veterinary career and interest in veterinary topics
  • academic ability, communication skills, animal orientation personal attitudes and attributes, fitness to practice as a veterinary surgeon

Observational Task

You will be asked to watch a series of short videos and comment on the content of each of them. We will assess your enthusiasm and aptitude, including observational and analytical skills and animal-orientation, rather than your knowledge.

Offers

Our assessors will score your assessment day performances. If there is an exceptional recommendation for an offer or rejection based on your performance during the assessment, reasons will be fully documented.

All assessment data is compiled and standardised to mitigate any differences in marking between assessors.

Your score will then be ranked and reviewed by the Admissions Team and Admissions Sub-Deans. Our standard offer is AAB, however you may receive a lower offer if you have or are experiencing disadvantaging circumstances. The minimum accepted will not normally fall below the university academic entry requirements. Applicants will receive offers only once all interviews have taken place.

Once a decision has been made about your application you will be:

  • phoned by one of the Veterinary School staff and/or emailed to be made a conditional or unconditional offer which will be confirmed in full on UCAS
  • declined by email and offered the opportunity to be considered for another course within the university

You will be advised of our decision via UCAS up to 12 weeks after the final assessment has taken place. All decisions will be made by the deadline specified on the UCAS Key Dates webpage

Any offer made is subject to an Occupational Health assessment. This ensures we can implement any reasonable adjustmenets if recommended for you. Offers also require an acceptance of the Veterinary School Code of Practice by signing a Student Entry Agreement. This ensures you're aware of the specific objectives and standards for professional attitudes and behaviour required by the school and the profession.

Our courses are extremely popular and competition for places is high. As such we will not be able to interview or make offers to many strong candidates.

Due to the vast volume of applications and feedback requests received from unsuccessful applicants, we are unable to provide detailed feedback regarding individual applications.

You can appeal against misleading or incorrect information from the University and concerns about the application or interview process through our complaints process. However, you cannot challenge:

  • academic judgement of a member of the assessment panel
  • the outcome of an admissions decision
  • the admissions policy

School of Veterinary Medicine and Science

University of Nottingham
Sutton Bonington Campus
Leicestershire, LE12 5RD

telephone: +44 (0)115 951 6116
fax: +44 (0)115 951 6415
email: veterinary-enquiries@nottingham.ac.uk