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University Of Arizona Vet School Accreditation

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This information is provided as a public service by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Council on Education® (COE) consistent with a web listing protocol recommended by the Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors (ASPA).

This page contains the only official internet list of schools and programs accredited in the field(s) of veterinary medicine by the AVMA COE. The list is updated biannually. Schools, programs, degrees, or other information are listed here only after satisfactory completion of the AVMA COE accreditation process. Accreditation is achieved through a review process conducted by an external review panel of practitioners and academics, which verifies that the program meets the requirements of an accredited college of veterinary medicine. The AVMA COE is not responsible for the accuracy or timeliness of any accredited status representations on any other website.

  • Accredited is a classification granted to a college that has no deficiencies in any of the Standards and is granted for a period of up to seven years. A college with one or more minor deficiencies that have minimal or no effect on student learning or safety, that can be reasonably be addressed in one year, is Accredited with minor deficiencies. Colleges with a status of Accredited submit annual interim reports to monitor continued compliance with the Standards of Accreditation. Colleges with a status of Accredited with minor deficiencies submit reports twice a year.
  • Probationary Accreditation is granted to a college that has one or more major deficiencies that have more than minimal impact on student learning or safety. These deficiencies must be corrected in two years. The college must submit reports to the Council every six months. If minor deficiencies are not corrected within one year, a college will be placed on Probationary Accreditation for one additional year. The college then must submit reports to the Council every six months.
  • If a college granted Reasonable Assurance is making adequate progress in complying with the Standards, Provisional Accreditation may be granted to that college on the date that letters of acceptance (admission) are mailed to members of the initial class. When Provisional Accreditation is granted, interim reports are required at six-month intervals to monitor the program’s progress in complying with the Standards; in particular changes in business or educational plans must be addressed in detail. Provisional Accreditation status may remain in effect no more than five years if the program complies with the necessary requirements. A program with Provisional Accreditation for five years or that does not provide continuing evidence that its program will comply with the Standards and its plan may be placed on Terminal Accreditation.

Image courtesy of Arizona Board of Regents/University of Arizona

An artist’s rendering of the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine depicts the program’s headquarters in Oro Valley. Its main building is named for the Kemper and Ethel Marley Foundation, which gifted $9 million to UA to support the program’s development in 2014.

The Council on Education has given its nod to the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine, signaling an end to the program’s six-year battle for accreditation.

The UA veterinary college in Tucson is on track to become the nation’s 31st program, opening with 100 students in August 2020.

The COE, the only federally backed accrediting body for veterinary education and part of the American Veterinary Medical Association, voted this month to extend reasonable assurance to UA. Reasonable assurance is a first step in the accreditation process, issued only if evaluators believe a program has a feasible plan for achieving full accreditation once its inaugural class graduates. The designation provides students with access to federal loans under Title VII of the U.S. Public Health Act.

University officials shared the news on Thursday in an online media announcement, celebrating the success of their quest toward accreditation, a process that the program has struggled with since 2013.

UA’s previous difficulties with the COE were not mentioned by UA President Robert C. Robbins, who stated in the news release that “This show of support from the AVMA paves the way for the University of Arizona to become a leader in veterinary medical education.”

Officials originally aimed to open in fall 2015, the program’s development jumpstarted by a $9 million grant from the Kemper and Ethel Marley Foundation. UA also received an $8 million appropriation from the Arizona Legislature, money slated to retrofit a 30,000-square-foot building in Oro Valley for the program’s main administrative offices and pre-clinical education center.

But the promise of opening by 2015 proved to be elusive. In 2016, the COE withheld accreditation from UA based on findings that the program failed to meet four of 11 accreditation standards. UA appealed, but a hearing panel appointed by the AVMA Board of Directors sided with the COE in early 2017. 

UA responded in February 2017 by hiring the consulting services of Mark Cushing, a lawyer and policy adviser who’s successfully ushered veterinary medical programs at Ross University, Lincoln Memorial University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico through the accreditation process.

During the Pet Healthcare Industry Summit hosted last month by Banfield Pet Hospital, Cushing predicted that UA would be accredited within weeks.

UA’s veterinary college will not include a traditional teaching hospital. Rather, it will employ a hybrid-distributive teaching model that will use UA facilities including the Campus Agriculture Center for on-site clinical training, and send students offsite for clinical training at locations ranging from urban specialty hospitals to rural mixed-animal practices.

Dr. Julie Funk, dean of the program since March, said she’s anxious to get started. The goal, she said, is for students to have their hands on animals from their first week through their last.

“We have a real focus on making sure that students are learning veterinary medicine in context, looking at what they’re learning in the classroom and how that relates to what they’re going to do in practice,” she said in the news release.

The college will be the first public veterinary school in Arizona and the state’s second veterinary school. Midwestern University, a private college in Glendale — a two-hour drive north of UA — opened in 2014, seating 102 first-year students.

Charging tuition of more than $55,000 per year, Midwestern is among the most expensive veterinary programs in the country, and UA isn’t far behind. Early in the program’s development, UA officials promised a more affordable option for state residents, aiming to set tuition at $28,000 a year. Officials now anticipate that the Arizona Board of Regents will set tuition significantly higher: $45,000 a year for residents and $68,000 for non-residents. UA’s program is designed to be completed in three years, summers included, rather than the traditional four years required by other institutions. 

“Our program is structured to be completed in three calendar years, meaning you will graduate sooner and get to work one year earlier than you would in most other DVM programs,” the UA website says.  

The rise of both programs in Arizona reflect an era of growth for U.S. veterinary education that has not been seen since the 1970s, when seven new programs were established. The same year Midwestern opened, so did a veterinary program at Lincoln Memorial University, a private university in Harrogate, Tennessee. Now, LMU aims to double its class size of 90-some students — an expansion large enough to require COE approval.

New programs at Texas Tech University and Long Island University Post also are in the accreditation pipeline, and an upstart could be brewing. The private equity firm Global Veterinary Partners is exploring developing a veterinary program in southern Florida. If established, it would be a second veterinary school in the state. A program exists at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Update: On Oct. 24, 2022, Lincoln Memorial University announced that it received approval from the American Veterinary Medical Association’s accrediting body, the Council on Education, to add a second class of 100 students in the spring. The addition will almost double the size of the program, which opened in 2015. Officials with the university, in central Appalachia, said they proposed the expansion as a way to meet the area’s need for more veterinarians.

Arizona will open state’s first public veterinary school in 2020, after key approval

The University of Arizona got a key approval Thursday from the accrediting body responsible for veterinary medicine colleges, clearing the way for an expected 2020 opening for students.

The American Veterinary Medical Association gave UA a “letter of reasonable assurance,” the first step toward full accreditation. With the letter, UA’s veterinary college will start accepting students. It will be provisionally accredited until its first cohort graduates in 2023. During this period, graduates are still “fully eligible” to become licensed to practice veterinary medicine, UA said

The college will be the first public veterinary school in Arizona, though Midwestern University, a private college in Glendale, has a veterinary school as well. That program has 400 students, according to its website.

UA has said its program will help address a shortage of veterinarians in Arizona and nationwide, which is more acute in rural areas. Four regions in Arizona are designated as having a veterinary shortage of some kind, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture

UA’s program will be three years instead of the traditional four and will operate year-round, UA said. The first two years will be spent in pre-clinical classes focused on “active-learning experiences” instead of lectures, UA said.

The third year will be clinical training rotations at veterinary hospitals, practices and zoos throughout the Southwest, including the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson, UA said. 

“Our goal is that students will have their hands on animals in the first week and all the way through the curriculum,” Dean Julie Funk said in a news release. 

College was denied in the past

The road to a new veterinary school has been long for UA.

UA first asked for approval from the American Veterinary Medical Association in 2014, hoping to open the program in fall 2015. 

But in 2016, the university failed to receive a letter of reasonable assurance. At that time, the accrediting body had concerns over the potential program’s finances, number of faculty, research programs and clinical resources. UA appealed that decision, but was unsuccessful.

The university reapplied for consideration in 2017. A site visit by the accrediting body happened in May.

UA hired a consultant who has worked with other universities that had successfully received accreditation from the veterinary association. The college also hired Funk as dean. She started in March. 

What will the school do? 

The veterinary college’s home base will be in Oro Valley, not at the main Tucson campus.

The university received $8 million in 2017 from the state for the future veterinary school. UA is using the money to update a building in Oro Valley, including adding classrooms, labs and offices, UA said. 

The three state universities have about 1,100 pre-vet students, the documents from the regents say. 

Funk previously said about 55 Arizona students per year leave the state to go to veterinary school elsewhere. She estimated the new program would have 100 to 110 students, recruiting both in and out of state. 

The UA program will be the first new veterinary-medicine program at a public land-grant university in more than 40 years, UA has previously said. 

The college is preparing to accept its first class in fall 2020, and applications to apply are already available, UA spokeswoman Pam Scott said in an email. 

Once the first class of students is accepted, the college will be eligible for provisional accreditation, Scott said. The college then will provide reports to the accrediting body every six months and will have site visits until it can earn full accreditation after the first class graduates, Scott said. 

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