Flexible Program in Veterinary Studies

We know that not all animal health and production professionals follow the same career path. In this program, you can build the degree you need to support the career you want. You can even choose the way you study. These are the advantages of taking a degree in veterinary studies, without selecting a major. We expect that this is the way most students will participate in this program.

Veterinary studies does not just mean clinical study – though it can mean that as well. As a result, you can apply for the program even if you are not a veterinarian. You will not be able to study in clinical units of study, but there are still plenty of options for you.

Please note, though, that this is not a pathway to becoming a veterinarian – if this is your goal, you will need to look at the undergraduate Bachelor of Veterinary Science (link), even if you already have a degree.

Where will you choose to do veterinary studies?

With the range of units of study on offer, you could choose to study by distance, on campus or a combination of both.

However, most units of study are offered either on campus or online, so what you can select may be limited by where you can study. If you do not live in or near Sydney, you will wish to select distance units or units you can take in short residential sessions. If you are an international student studying in Australia on a student visa, you will only be allowed to take up to 25% of your program online.

Once you have decided where you will study, it is time to consider what?

What are your interests?

It is best to start with what you are interested in and where you wish your career to go. At this point, feel free to contact us for some advice on units of study that may fill your needs.

We may not always be able to provide exactly what you are after in exactly the format that suits you, so it is also a good idea to look through details of our programs to see what is available. Remember – you can choose any of the units we offer at postgraduate level (except clinical units if you are not registered to practice as a veterinarian in NSW).

Areas of study in Veterinary Studies

Areas of study on campus are: animal genetics, animal biotechnology, animal reproduction, animal nutrition, feed technology, food safety, animal health and disease. You can also study production and technology in specific industries, such as dairy, beef, sheep. Aquatic animal health and wildlife health are available as are other units of study from the Wildlife program. If you wish to study Veterinary Public Health on-campus you can take some of our online units and supplement these with on-campus units offered through the Faculty of Medicine.

Clinical units of study are offered in supervised mode on campus and are highly competitive to access. They include units in small animal clinical studies, equine surgery & medicine and veterinary diagnostic pathology.

Many of our units of study with the best feedback from students are offered online. These are in areas such as veterinary epidemiology, risk analysis, surveillance, food safety, animal genetics, animal biotechnology, diagnostic tests, animal health economics, animal health policy development, hazards to human and animal health, data analysis and data management.

Postgraduate study is fundamentally about leadership. For this reason we encourage all postgraduate students to consider taking our leadership and management units. These usually have a compulsory on-campus residential and an online component. These enable you to develop skills in Leadership, People & Organisations, Leadership: Managing Change and Project Management. From 2008 an additional unit of study called Leadership Skills will be available.

Finally, if need be, we encourage you to consider supplementing these units of study with those offered by other Faculties at the University of Sydney. We recommend units from the Bioethics program, the Public Health Program and the Wildlife program - though feel free to explore others that may be applicable to your goals. You will often need permission to enroll in these units of study.