Student Involvement in Global Veterinary Education and Curricula: 7 Years of Progress (2013–2019)
Publication: Journal of Veterinary Medical Education
Volume 47, Number 4
Abstract
As central members of the veterinary education community, students are well placed to highlight current problems in veterinary education. Motivated by the lack of current formal student involvement, the largest global veterinary student association, the International Veterinary Students’ Association (IVSA), realized the necessity for students to express their opinions within the veterinary education field. Thus, two standing committees related to veterinary education were created: the Standing Committee on One Health in 2013 and the Standing Committee on Veterinary Education in 2014. For 7 years, veterinary students have been acting in a four-dimensional plane to involve students in (a) electronic educational resources and e-learning, (b) interdisciplinary collaboration and One Health, (c) curriculum involvement, and (d) vocational guidance. Through multiple projects, such as student and tutor interaction, idea exchanges, development of e-resources, and curriculum development campaigns, IVSA has managed to increase awareness to students and schools of the important role students play within veterinary education. This article highlights students’ ability to work together to help other students learn and succeed within their veterinary studies, as well as the necessity for student engagement in curricular renewal and development. Consequently, IVSA’s projects and achievements are described, highlighting a from students—to students approach to promote active student involvement in veterinary education and curricula globally.
Introduction
Worldwide, veterinary students are key stakeholders within veterinary education. Some of the major deficiencies in teaching that students highlight are mental health support,1 professional communication,2 and insufficient integration between the theoretical studies and practice.3 As central members of the veterinary education community, students are also well placed to highlight current problems in the veterinary curriculum. A friendly platform to allow students to actively collaborate with educators on designing the school curriculum is imperative. Current veterinary curricula exhibit deficits such as a lack of curriculum integration,4 stress and anxiety in students, program intensity, the amount of information students are expected to learn, the amount of material students are expected to memorize, and a mismatch between pre-clinical and clinical subjects.5 Motivated by a lack of student involvement, the largest global veterinary student association, the International Veterinary Students’ Association (IVSA), realized the important opportunity for the student voice to contribute to veterinary education. Thus, two standing committees related to veterinary education were created: the Standing Committee on One Health (SCOH) in 2013 and the Standing Committee on Veterinary Education (SCOVE) in 2014. The latter was an evolution of a previous Standing Committee on Modern Technology in Education. After 7 years, SCOH and SCOVE managed to support veterinary education development for students globally through a variety of projects and initiatives in several aspects. In these committees, veterinary students acted in a four-dimensional plane to involve students in (a) interdisciplinary collaboration and One Health, (b) electronic educational resources and e-learning, (c) curriculum development, and (d) vocational guidance to fulfill the perceived deficiencies in veterinary education. This article describes the importance of students in highlighting potential gaps in veterinary education and how IVSA and its committees acted to promote student involvement in education and curriculum development.
Student Perspectives in Veterinary Education
Interdisciplinary Collaboration and One Health Education
The so-called One Health framework encourages multidisciplinary engagement in global health research, education, program and policy assessments, planning, and implementation. Its scope is to better connect ongoing global health efforts in disease control and preparedness to larger underlying and pressing issues of environmental change equity and sustainability.6
Veterinary students have acknowledged the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and the necessity for One Health teaching within the undergraduate curriculum, the aim of which would be to increase undergraduate awareness and establish a One Health culture among future graduates in a long-term perspective.
Specifically, in 2013, veterinary students participated for the first time in the World Healthcare Students’ Symposium (WHSS)—a biannual global multidisciplinary summit that brings together health care students and professionals to learn, discuss, and develop collaborative and innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing global health challenges. The organizing board of this congress consists of members from international and regional student associations of physical therapy, dental, medical, pharmaceutical, and veterinary disciplines. The involvement of veterinary students started in 2013 and is ongoing; it is one of the most important opportunities for veterinary students, as they may develop interdisciplinary relationships by exchanging scientific and philosophical ideas with other health care students around the world, while simultaneously highlighting the importance of veterinary science.
Moreover, veterinary students published the online global journal, IVSA Veterinary Public Health Journal,7 for the first time in 2013; IVSA continues to be published to date (n = 12). It is an e-journal where veterinary students can publish opinions and articles related to public health in order to strengthen the One Health concept and contribute to veterinary education.
In addition, IVSA and its committees first attempted to organize a global collaboration between themselves and medical students, called the Global One Health Challenge,8 in 2014 with the support of the Global Alliance for Rabies Control, in the frame of the World Rabies Day and public awareness.9 This first direct collaboration provided the opportunity for a series of partnerships between the IVSA and the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations, which have followed since then. Veterinary students realized quite early on the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, which can broaden the horizon of communication between the different health sciences within the daily working environment (e.g., collaborative work on emerging diseases in the state public health services).
Finally, veterinary students actively participated by delivering a lecture within the first International Who’s Who In One Health webinar organized by the One Health Commission on November 2014.10 This was a 10-hour online conference where international associations, committees, groups, and experts on One Health met each other to discuss future plans. In this conference, the first global One Health student group (IVSA SCOH) was introduced for the first time to the international One Health community through a lecture. The conference was attended by almost 1,000 participants from 41 countries throughout the world.11 Following that, the One Health Commission founded the International Student One Health Alliance, which was the first dedicated interdisciplinary One Health student group worldwide.12
The students successfully introduced the One Health initiative through the international veterinary student community. As a consequence, these initiatives led to improvement of the One Health knowledge status quo of students.
The World of Electronic Resources—The Importance of e-Learning
E-learning is the use of Internet technologies to enhance knowledge and performance, which offers learners control over content, learning sequences, pace of learning, time, and often media, allowing them to tailor their experiences to meet their personal learning objectives.13 E-learning cannot replace the traditional teaching methods13; however, it does play a major supportive role in a learner’s education through multimedia representations, flashcards, quizzes, and other assessments. It also importantly introduces distance learning to overcome geographical limitations.
An abundance of websites with electronic veterinary content (including online textbooks, videos, images, flashcards, quizzes, etc.) exists online, often free of charge, to users. The abundant number of websites and the fact that they are scattered and uncategorized throughout the web created a major technical problem for a student user. Aiming to solve this problem, SCOVE developed a free online platform named IVSA EDU+ Education Platform,14 collating the—mainly free—electronic veterinary resources provided online (e.g., radiography maps, online anatomy, clinical pathology online textbooks, etc.). On this platform, links to over 50 international websites are collated, provided by universities, institutions, and private companies, and categorized under species, disciplines, and key word hashtags. Thus, students worldwide, especially students with restricted access to hard-copy resources, are able to use their unique online study assistant to organize their studies, study further, and self-assess. The reach of this project has been significant: 2,299 people used the website in 2018. The most popular category is Anatomy, Histology and Embryology; the top five viewers originate from the US, Egypt, Taiwan, China, and Italy.
Aware that veterinary students perceive videos to play a useful role in higher education,15 particularly prior to practical examinations, SCOVE created a video e-learning project named VET Talks16 in collaboration with WikiVet Educational Foundation. VET Talks (n = 27) are short free online videos with useful ordinary or extraordinary veterinary topics given by outstanding speakers (veterinary surgeons) around the world. VET Talks is hosted on YouTube. This project inspired the next generation of this project, called VET(s) Talks (n = 4), held by students for students, in order to give students the experience of teaching. The speakers of both projects cover a variety of topics, including veterinary science and professional development, and originate from multiple countries (China, Germany, Greece, Malaysia, Nigeria, Spain, UK, US). Both projects are currently followed by 3,084 students and graduates on the YouTube channel, with viewing numbers for individual videos ranging from 117 to 24,000 views.
Furthermore, the VetMedAcademy,17 is an online e-course platform (hosted in Moodle software: https://moodle.org) based in the US. IVSA and its committees developed a course named IVSA Student Corner, providing free resources related to veterinary education, One Health, and animal welfare issues. The impact of this course on veterinary students has been significant: they have been able to train themselves more thoroughly in aspects of animal welfare, One Health, and veterinary education.
SCOVE—along with WikiVet, VetMed Academy, Royal Veterinary College—University of London, and the Centre for Veterinary Education—University of Sydney—organized the WikiVet LIVE! online conference in 2018.18 WikiVet LIVE! was the first international online veterinary conference to provide opportunities for learning in three different time zones for free.
Through e-learning promotion and creation of a student user-friendly environment, IVSA tried to integrate e-learning into the students’ daily routines and provide them with organized extra resources. The aim of those projects was to help students improve their own learning, to support them, along with recent graduates, scientifically, and to facilitate a user-friendly online environment where desirable scientific information could be easily reached at any time. Thus, these opportunities for free-of-charge knowledge and access to multidisciplinary topics are some of the most important of IVSA’s achievements.
Involvement in Veterinary Curriculum
Interestingly, engaging students effectively as partners in learning and teaching is arguably one of the most important issues facing higher education in the twenty-first century. Within this students as partners concept, students are considered important participants of debates related to assessment and feedback, employability, flexible pedagogies, internationalization, ways to link teaching and research, and retention and success.19 In reality, students are commonly engaged in course evaluations and in departmental staff–student committees, but it is rarer for institutions to go beyond the student voice and engage students as partners in designing the curriculum and giving pedagogic advice and consultancy.19
The veterinary curriculum design is the biggest challenge for a veterinary school with high standards that aims to produce knowledgeable and competent veterinary graduates who are equipped with clinical and professional skills. As time goes on and technology is improving, the curriculum does not always get adjusted promptly, and as a result, concerns about potential mismatches between what is taught and what the market needs are raised. Additionally, one student recommendation for an improved curriculum is the promotion of creative small-group teaching instead of traditional lecture-based teaching.20 Moreover, several subjects have been considered to be important parts of the veterinary curriculum by veterinary students, including the human–animal bond,21 One Health,22 animal welfare,23 research skills,24 and extramural placements.25 Students are the first to realize what a curriculum lacks in terms of theoretical knowledge, skills, or connection with the real market. Consequently, student involvement in the formation of the veterinary curriculum is a must.
Student involvement in curriculum evaluation and accreditation processes is key to driving improvement. The European Association of Establishments in Veterinary Education (EAEVE) along with the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe, through the European System of Evaluation of Veterinary Training (ESEVT), evaluate, promote, and further develop the quality and standard of veterinary medical establishments and their teaching within Europe. Thus, a team of experts from Europe are visiting veterinary schools within the ESEVT in order to evaluate whether each school meets the standards of veterinary education. The evaluation team consists of one student and members from major disciplines such as basic sciences, companion animals, food producing animals, food hygiene, and so on. The student member’s role includes assisting the team in assessing animal resources, teaching material of animal origin, learning resources, student admission, progression and welfare, and student assessment at the university.26 This is accomplished by fruitful discussions, idea exchanges, and brainstorming between the student expert and a representative group of students from the host establishment, where opinions, viewpoints, and areas of satisfactions or dissatisfactions are highlighted. Since 2014, inspired by the students as partners concept, EAEVE has been collaborating with IVSA and SCOVE by advertising the position of the student expert within the veterinary student community. During the 2015–2019 period, 61.5% (24/39) of the student experts who participated in the EAEVE evaluation teams were selected via IVSA/EAEVE’s selection procedure, which is based on curriculum vitae and motivation letter. These students represented 11 different countries (Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, the UK), increasing the active contribution of multinational student participation into curriculum evaluation procedures. This initiative has increased the transparency of the selection procedure and has given the opportunity to a larger framework of students throughout Europe, so that they can participate actively in the evaluation procedures of their school’s curriculum.
Vocational Guidance
Vocational guidance or career guidance prepares one for a successful career in science, which is a daunting challenge, requiring objective analysis of one’s own attributes and potential, as well as commitment, careful planning, and a realistic assessment of employment prospects.27 In reality, many students nowadays follow career specialties depending on current trends or financial gains. SCOVE realized there was a gap in vocational guidance offered to veterinary students worldwide, which resulted in generalized ignorance of the different career paths available to a veterinary graduate. Thus, the Vet Profession Map,28 an online interactive map of multiple veterinary paths, roles, and specializations, was created and is updated regularly, aiming to offer career counseling to veterinary students or recent graduates. This map is accessible online, where students can become aware of a variety of veterinary roles in private practice, government, research, and industry.
Conclusions
In 2013, IVSA, through its committees along with external partners, started a global initiative on veterinary education, including One Health, fulfilling multiple chronic student necessities, such as e-learning educational resources, vocational guidance, curriculum involvement, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Through projects, awareness, and active participation in veterinary education, IVSA managed to play a major role in the introduction of veterinary students to the field of veterinary education globally, as well as in student involvement in the veterinary curricula. Vet students have engaged in global education through a 7-year period of goals, ambitions, and continuous work within the from students—to students frame. IVSA has managed to establish the beginning of student involvement in veterinary education worldwide, increase awareness of student perspectives in education, and promote the role of students as partners in education. The reach of these achievements in the global veterinary student society reflects both the high perception of students for their active participation and the importance of the student role in veterinary education and curriculum development. In conclusion, the achievements and reach of the world’s largest veterinary student association during its first 7-year period of active participation in global veterinary education transmit a worldwide message to the leaders of veterinary education of the importance of the students as partners frame, and a boost for students to develop their active engagement further and expand their activities within global veterinary education in the future.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all the executive committees of the International Veterinary Students’ Association, members of the Standing Committees on One Health and Veterinary Education, WikiVet Educational Foundation, VetMedAcademy, European Association of Establishments in Veterinary Education, Federation of Veterinarians of Europe, One Health Commission, and Global Alliance for Rabies Control for their trust in student goals and ambitions over these 7 years of hard work.
References
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Published In
Journal of Veterinary Medical Education
Volume 47 • Number 4 • July 2020
Pages: 379 - 383
PubMed: 32053052
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2020 AAVMC.
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Published online: 13 February 2020
Published in print: July 2020
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