If you are considering studying in the UK, you can check the validity of the course at:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/UniversityAndHigherEducation/DecidingWhereToStudy/DG_10031740

Or just google "bogus degrees".

Note, registration does NOT guarantee standards (see link). Any college that tries to use registration to fool people into thinking it does guarantee standards is probably bogus.

my 18year old has been attending open days. she wants to study veterinary science and not all vet courses are accredited. we found that when we went to nottingham university. yes, its a new vet course. but hey! u cant be a vet after doing the course, as its not accredited!

The deal at the moment is that the degree from Nottingham doesn't automatically entitle you to membership of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, while a degree from the other UK vet schools does. It means that at the moment, Nottingham graduates will need to take the Royal College exams separately to be allowed to practise in the UK. You can still practise; it's just not as direct a route as the other schools offer.

So just out of interest then, why would anyone go to Nottingham then (as opposed to a University offering 'the direct route')?

Because it is crazily competitive to get into vet school, so people will go where they get an offer! Nottingham is working to be fully accredited in the the future - it is just becase this is a new course. Best of luck to your daughter by the way Jade!

thank you. she is very determined to only go to the london school. although finishing Alevels this year with either AAA or AAB, she has chosen to stay back another 2 years and take up another science A level and retake her maths gcse she got a Cgrade in (needs an A) to better her marks for the london school. we're all a family of students. im a single parent starting my PhD this year with my 2kids doing A levels. son wants to study medicine...fingers crossed!!

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Sylvester removed this post.

ps. been told that working towards accreditation doesnt mean a uni will get it. there are many unis offering psychology courses, have been offering them for years and still never got accredited. something to note if this is really important to you x

The reason that the Notts vet school doesn't have accreditation by the RCVS is because it has not as yet had any graduates therefore it is not known what the quality of graduates is going to be like. I don't think there will be any problem with them getting accrediation as they have some good academic and research staff; some of whom used to teach at the RVC in London. Any particular reason why your daughter wants to go to the London vet school rather than the other ones?

She's aiming high. gosh! have u seen the place? its absolutely amazing (RVC). we went on their open day and it was all so organised and so knowledgeable. the staff were so knowledgeable. they have a hospital on site. students deal with an amazing array of animals. the hospital at RVC is a fully working hospital linked to London zoo. u cant help but want to go there. everything was amazing. we went to notts open day and were very disappointed. there is no hospital there. they do not focus on the clinical aspect and they told us so. so i cant see how they can ever get accreditation unless they can offer the kind of level of education the RVC do. we also found the staff at notts not as knowledgeable as RVC. we were shown into a sandschool where we were given a talk by a farrier for the army who asked us if we knew what a farrier does ..lol. ud think we were primary school kids. we actually decided to leave after as we felt it was a waste of time. chatting to others there who had gone to other unis offering vet courses, they felt the same. we havnt gone to check out other vet schools and my daughter says there are some very good ones, but notts in our opinion was a no-no. and RVC was certainly the top. even others we chatted to said if they could, that would be where they'd choose to go first. i loved the place and all the facilites. even the hospital there accommodates giraffes! :-)

She's aiming high. gosh! have u seen the place? its absolutely amazing (RVC). we went on their open day and it was all so organised and so knowledgeable. the staff were so knowledgeable. they have a hospital on site. students deal with an amazing array of animals. the hospital at RVC is a fully working hospital linked to London zoo. u cant help but want to go there. everything was amazing. we went to notts open day and were very disappointed. there is no hospital there. they do not focus on the clinical aspect and they told us so. so i cant see how they can ever get accreditation unless they can offer the kind of level of education the RVC do. we also found the staff at notts not as knowledgeable as RVC. we were shown into a sandschool where we were given a talk by a farrier for the army who asked us if we knew what a farrier does ..lol. ud think we were primary school kids. we actually decided to leave after as we felt it was a waste of time. chatting to others there who had gone to other unis offering vet courses, they felt the same. we havnt gone to check out other vet schools and my daughter says there are some very good ones, but notts in our opinion was a no-no. and RVC was certainly the top. even others we chatted to said if they could, that would be where they'd choose to go first. i loved the place and all the facilites. even the hospital there accommodates giraffes! :-)

sorry post went on twice. im not saying notts isnt good. its too new a course. and certainly not good enough compared to the RVC and others that have been going for years and are fully accredited. having a working hospital on site as the RVC has is just amazing. it costs the earth funding kids through vet school and we dont want to be part of the early guinea pigs at notts. thats how we see it. its too new and not enough facilities. they'd have to bus pupils out to get any clinical experience and certainly not with large animals like the RVC can with their link with london zoo. RVC is well known and well established with very high reports. that is where she aims to go and she wont even apply to notts. if she doesnt get into RVC, she will do a biology degree elsewhere and apply to RVC as a graduate entry. she doesnt want to go anywhere else not after visiting RVC. we also found on the day we visited notts that the same guy who started the course, gave the talk, rushed out to put an overall on to give a talk in the lab. and he rushed out of lab again to take his overall off to give another talk in the main hall again. from that, we felt they didnt have enough staff. at RVC there was a plethora of highly qualified staff. u didnt have the person in charge of the course and department running around giving the parents talk and rushing to the lab to give the talk there. we thought that was hilarious at notts :-)

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Yeah I know the RVC well; I went there for my undergrad degree and getting through vet school is expensive lol :-) I don't blame her for not wanting to go to notts.. there have been various teething problems and it will be a good few years till they are firing on all cylinders.. My advice to her would be to look at the other established vet schools and not to rule them out completely :-)

hi. this teenager since visiting the RVC has fallen in love with the place and nothing else will do. yes..there are lots of other good vet schools but she's just set on that place. we did go to the leeds uni open day in september. we found we couldnt go to the talk on the vet school as places were booked well before the open day and so on the day we found we couldnt go to the talk which was a shame as we would have loved to. she is trying her best to get in to RVC only for veterinary. and she will apply to others for biology. if she doesnt get into RVC she will do biology elsewhere and apply as a graduate. wish i could change her mind to do veterinary science elsewhere but she just wont. its RVC or not she says. i thought leeds uni was well organised but we didnt like the accommodation. we want ensuite accommodation on campus and fully catered. at leeds the catered accommodation was off campus a long 15 to 20min bus ride away. it was horribly dingy dismal and dark. felt like a prison. we got chatting to a mum and her son who'd jsut arrived and were so upset as they hadnt viewd the catered rooms beforehand and the poor lad hated what he had. the rooms on campus were much better and light and airy but they were not catered. its so hard trying to find everything right and going to the RVC this summer and finding it ticks all the boxes has spoiled her for any other uni....lol. oh well, i hope it works out for the better x

hi. this teenager since visiting the RVC has fallen in love with the place and nothing else will do. yes..there are lots of other good vet schools but she's just set on that place. we did go to the leeds uni open day in september. we found we couldnt go to the talk on the vet school as places were booked well before the open day and so on the day we found we couldnt go to the talk which was a shame as we would have loved to. she is trying her best to get in to RVC only for veterinary. and she will apply to others for biology. if she doesnt get into RVC she will do biology elsewhere and apply as a graduate. wish i could change her mind to do veterinary science elsewhere but she just wont. its RVC or not she says. i thought leeds uni was well organised but we didnt like the accommodation. we want ensuite accommodation on campus and fully catered. at leeds the catered accommodation was off campus a long 15 to 20min bus ride away. it was horribly dingy dismal and dark. felt like a prison. we got chatting to a mum and her son who'd jsut arrived and were so upset as they hadnt viewd the catered rooms beforehand and the poor lad hated what he had. the rooms on campus were much better and light and airy but they were not catered. its so hard trying to find everything right and going to the RVC this summer and finding it ticks all the boxes has spoiled her for any other uni....lol. oh well, i hope it works out for the better x