Of the five universities who sent in bids for the new veterinary school, none offered a graduate entry route, the Higher Education Authority (HEA) has said.

The HEA received applications from UCD as it is looking to add places to its existing veterinary school, University of Limerick (UL), Munster Technological University (MTU), Atlantic Technological University (ATU) and South East Technological University (SETU).

Due to the poor retention of vets in cattle practices, a graduate route into veterinary from Agriculture had been suggested as a solution.

Graduate offerings for veterinary

However, Dr Alan Wall, CEO of the HEA, told the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture on Wednesday that although graduate entry route programmes can work very well, the HEA can only work with what the universities included in their applications.

"The specifics around agriculture as a way in would be in the hands of the university.

“University of Limerick’s graduate entry into medicine is a very successful programme and it’s done very well. It takes in a broad range of students from all kinds of backgrounds.

“When we went out to the system looking for a response in the case of veterinary, nobody came back with a graduate offering. We just are working with what we get," Wall said.

Wall was also scathing of the speculation that students should get a spot on the course because their parents did veterinary.

"I get nervous when I read things that sons and daughters of farmers should have particular dispensation.

"In a small country like ours, if you begin to allocate places on the basis of what parents did, it causes a world of pain."

Interview system

"Another thing that worries me is an interview system in a small country," Wall said.

"One of the things the Central Applications Office (CAO) did was get rid of that. However, there are other ways of dealing with that, and there will be conversations about that at a later stage.

"The key point to say to the committee is that this is the first step. Getting to find out who's willing to do it and what it might cost them is the first thing," he said.

Location

As it stands, the Minister for Higher Education, Simon Harris, has received a report from the HEA. This includes a ranking score for each application and it is understood that a location will be decided on shortly.

However, Wall did tell the committee that the HEA are concerned about regional balance, adding that a regional spread is something that they think is important.

“We’ve made a recommendation around how a veterinary provision could be done based on regionality, the possibility of expansion and thinking about what type of veterinary medicine practice they’d be giving,” he said.