<<<Seated (left to right): Rachel Heenan, Danielle Priestley, Victoria Fernandez-Vidal, Jessica Ellis. Standing (left to right): Rachel Cartledge.
Eight graduates from St. George’s University School of Veterinary Medicine (SGUSVM) have passed the Statutory Membership Examination of the UK’s Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), representing more than one-half of the total number that passed. Of the 50 candidates that took the exam, a total of 14 worldwide passed successfully.
In order to practice veterinary surgery in the UK, all graduates with foreign or Commonwealth qualifications must pass the RCVS examination which consists of two days’ written papers, followed by clinical, oral and practical exams at a UK veterinary medical school. SGUSVM graduates have traditionally demonstrated impressive pass rates on this rigorous exam.
“Nearly 400 students from St. George’s University have graduated from the School of Veterinary Medicine since its inception in 1999,” says Austin Kirwan, St. George’s Associate Dean of UK and Ireland Clinical Affairs. Since that time, a total of 22 SGUSVM graduates have passed the RCVS membership exam, including students from Sweden, the United States and most recently Ireland. Rachel Heenan, one of this year’s eight SGUSVM candidates, is the University’s first veterinary medical graduate from Ireland.
Rachel describes her time at St. George’s as “a hugely rewarding and hands on experience” and praised the professors for their “enormous support and kindness.”
Presenting the graduates with a membership certificate at the Ceremony of Admissions at the RCVS in London, Professor Alexander Trees congratulated and welcomed the students to the vetinerary practice. Commenting that the students were now part of a “privileged elite,” who were well equipped to protect animal welfare, he advised the students to nurture and maintain this well earned privilege. Professor Trees urged the students to enter the veterinary practice with confidence and expressed his hope that a few students would go on and make a “contribution to mitigating the world’s global healthcare problems.”
