Aberystwyth University announces new scholarship for students to study veterinary science through the medium of Welsh
Aberystwyth University has announced a new scholarship for students to study veterinary science through the medium of Welsh, thanks to a donation in memory of a local vet.
The scheme is being established following a donation from Elaine Davies’s family to the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, in memory of her father who was a well-known and highly respected vet in the Llandysul area.
The scholarship will be known as the ‘Defi Fet Scholarship’, in memory of DGE Davies.
The successful students will receive £2,500 over a five-year period to study at Wales’s first School of Veterinary Science.
Aberystwyth Veterinary School opened its doors to students for the first time in September 2021.
The students there are studying a Bachelor of Veterinary Science (BVSc) degree which is jointly delivered by Aberystwyth University and the Royal Veterinary College (RVC).
As part of the new scholarship, which will be established in conjunction with the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, students will undertake over half of their farm work experience and clinical experience through the medium of Welsh and will take full advantage of the Welsh-medium learning provision on the course at the University.
National Eisteddfod
The new scheme was announced by Aberystwyth University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Elizabeth Treasure at the National Eisteddfod in Tregaron.
Professor Elizabeth Treasure said: “Expanding and normalising Welsh-medium provision is absolutely at the heart of our mission as a university and for our School of Veterinary Science.
“We thank Elaine Davies’s family for its generosity and the Coleg Cymraeg for the important partnership. This will strengthen our Welsh-language offer even further. It will also strengthen the relationship between our students and Welsh vets, creating an additional incentive to work in Wales once they graduate.”
Elaine Davies, on behalf of the family who made the donation, said: “My father would be delighted to see the veterinary department in Aberystwyth and, even more, to think that young Welsh speakers have the opportunity to train in this key area in their own language.
“It is important that we build a new generation of vets who know their people and who can offer their services in Welsh.”
Hertfordshire
Students from Aberystwyth’s School of Veterinary Science on the five-year degree spend two years at Aberystwyth University and a subsequent three-year spell at the Hawkshead RVC Campus in Hertfordshire.
The programme covers the full range of animals, from pets to farm animals, in line with all other veterinary programmes.
The new scholarship is one of a number of financial support programmes available to students to study veterinary science at Aberystwyth. Further details are available by e-mailing: [email protected]
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Gwirioneddol dda
‘Aber’ University continues, as one of Britain’s smaller Universities, to uphold standards that have allowed it to punch academically well above it’s weight in Britain and Internationally. Current students I speak to are full of praise for the education and the experience they are given in Aberystwyth.
If what the Clinical Director in my local Vets practice said is reflective of the sector as a whole, plenty of job opportunities too. They are struggling to find qualified staff.
I mean vets take longer to qualify than doctors unless things have changed since I last heard (7yrs instead of 3-4). But it looks like there’s guaranteed employment at the end of it (unless the Tories decide to scapegoat animals after they’ve finished scapegoating refugees)
Good stuff. Now they need to work towards delivering the entire 5 year programme at Aber or at least within another Welsh institution as collaborators.