SETU chosen for veterinary medicine programme

The Government is set to announce South East Technical University (SETU) as one of two universities to host new Veterinary Medicine degree courses today, at the National Ploughing Championships.

Until now, Ireland only had one university with a veterinary medicine course, University College Dublin, but that capacity will be expanded to both SETU and Atlantic Technical University (ATU).

The Higher Education Authority originally published a request for expressions of interest making the case to be chosen to host the new Veterinary School in April of 2023. Applications from SETU and ATU were deemed viable along with a later-withdrawn proposal from University of Limerick.

This comes after motions were passed to call on Minister Patrick O'Donovan to finally decide which university will host the veterinary and pharmacy programmes by Waterford City and County Council and Carlow County Council, with hopes of the decision being made prior to the beginning of October, to allow students to register for the next academic year.

The greatly anticipated new vet course is hoped to alleviate the shortage of vets in the country with 40 students expected to graduate each year at SETU alone.

Waterford Senator John Cummins has welcomed the news saying: “I have been consistent in saying that the case made by the wonderful academic team at SETU was exceptionally strong.”

“While some politicians sought to throw cold water on our chances of achieving this prestigious degree course, suggesting there would be political interference in the process to favour Limerick, I never bought into this political point scoring,” said Senator Cummins.

The Fine Gael Senator praised the “exceptional work” done by various Government bodies and university stakeholders in appraising the business case to award SETU a new vet course.

“What has been very clear to me from the start of this process was the buy-in by everyone to ensure the favourable outcome we have achieved today," he said.

Senator Cummins added that he wanted to “put on record" his thanks to Taoiseach Simon Harris and Minister O’Donovan for "their steadfast support and engagement on this matter.” He said he was proud of the part he had played in “lobbying party colleagues” and organising support among political figures and criticised “those who didn’t support the establishment of SETU and said Technological Universities could never compete on a level pitch with traditional universities for new courses and investment".

"I hope they will reflect on their position and start talking up our new university, rather than talking it down," he said.

"Today’s announcement will bring with it significant capital development and staffing investment and will attract students to Waterford from right across the country," he added. Senator Cummins complimented SETU President Professor Veronica Campbell and the staff at SETU for their work on the bid and said he hopes “the awarding of this prestigious degree course is viewed as a statement of intent by Government.”