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This article was published in 1964
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INSTITUTE OF INSPECTORS OF STOCK OF N.S.W. YEAR BOOK.
Veterinary Education at The University of Sydney
R. V. S. BAIN, B.V.Sc., M.Sc. Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney.
On looking through the World Health Organisation's Directory of Veterinary Schools, one gets the impression that the schools in most countries follow a broadly similar course of studies. The veterinary school at Sydney University is no exception. At present the aim is that "the training should give as equal emphasis as practicable to all the main branches of veterinary science including veterinary medicine, clinical treatment and animal husbandry with particular emphasis on the maintenance of animal health". Soon in Sydney we are about to start on a period of review of the course. It is now possible to expand formal teaching in fifth year because of new buildings and staff at the farms at Camden. This will allow us to make a number of adjustments throughout the curriculum. Naturally, when fairly extensive changes are feasible, questions are asked about possible shifts of emphasis in teaching; about whether we should change the present definition of the type of graduate we seek to produce; about the present and future role of the veterinarian in the Australian community. Inevitably, since many points of view have to be accommodated, we shall continue to pursue a middle way and no revolutionary changes are expected.
Veterinary schools in Australia are sustained almost entirely by public money. In return they have an implicit, if not explicit, responsibility to train people so that they can fulfil the tasks which the community, by legislation and custom, expects from the statutory profession of veterinary surgery. There is no public body to police this; it is left to the discretion and good sense of the veterinary schools whose degree is accepted without question as a registrable qualification. There is no need for insistence on uniformity among our various professional schools. Academic freedom carries its own sense of responsibility. Inevitably, graduates from Sydney or any other veterinary school have considerable expertise in the diseases of animals, and in the clinical and technical skills required to diagnose, treat, prevent and investigate them. If we abdicate from this field, who can fill it? It would be a mistake if we abandoned our distinctive characteristics as veterinarians, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “skilled in or professionally occupied with the medical and surgical treatment of cattle and domestic animals”. Knowledge in other disciplines is helpful and useful, and we should have a meeting point with agriculture and rural science. These callings have their specialised areas also, just as we have ours, and there should be room for all three in the economy.
In any active down-to-earth profession there are bound to be critics and innovators uttering siren songs, prophetic wisdom or plain foolishness according to one's point of view. Beguiling slogans of recent times have been the “rural environment” and “integration”. The first one seems to have excited the interest of the Australian Universities Commission, so it has acquired a special importance. Although no poll has been taken, it would be fair to say that the majority of the staff of the agricultural and veterinary science faculties subscribe to what is called “the fallacy of the need for a rural environment in tertiary education”. This needs qualifying, of course. Everybody would agree about the need for some contact with farm animals (in the veterinary context) and rural practices in general. Hence in Sydney it has been the policy of the faculty for over 20 years to establish the final year as a full teaching year at a farm (now Camden). It is difficult to believe that more is necessary or beneficial. In the training of undergraduates, formal teaching must take up the overwhelming preponderance of the available time, so that there would be no opportunity to make use of a rural environment. Some permanent staff, of course, must be there along with their post-graduate disciples, but they know that they are going to a field station and must accept some academic isolation. Completely isolated rural schools teaching all years are anathema to everybody. All over the world veterinary schools are drawing closer to the universities. An academic environment is more important most of the time than a rural environment. Isolated schools become very vulnerable to the effects of loss of good staff. This is specially true for postgraduate teaching. Normally, post-graduate students profit more than anybody from contacts with the other departments in a university. In isolation they miss this. These remarks apply mostly to the preclinical and paraclinical departments. Whilst freely admitting the need for a final year's contact with farm animals most people in Sydney think that that is enough. Fourth year can be accommodated in Sydney with improved facilities. The teaching at this stage is mostly concerned with principles, illustrated by application to small animal and horse practice. Formal teaching and morning clinics take up every hour in the timetable. The paraclinical departments which start their teaching in third year are able to participate in the introductory and general clinical work of fourth year as well as draw their own teaching material from the small animal (and horse) clinic. In addition a very large volume of large-animal material is drawn from the various abattoirs for teaching of pathology, microbiology and parasitology. This would be the equivalent of about 2,000 cases per year. The Camden farms are rather far away from Sydney, about 1-1½ hours by car, and this restricts visits by staff between the two institutions. Some duplication of facilities is unavoidable. The Sydney faculty thinks that the best point of division is at the end of fourth year. This suits the local situation best. Other solutions might be applicable to Melbourne and Brisbane; there is no fixed rule.
“Integration” has been for some years what Stephen Potter calls “an O.K. word”. Sometimes it's not clear whether its advocates are thinking about integration in the administrative or in the academic sense. Naturally, in arranging a syllabus one should have regard for the natural sequence and relationship in subjects. When done well this is synchronisation which many of us think is a more realistic term than integration. An important principle in university teaching is the conservation of disciplines. Very properly, research is looked on as a prime function of universities. This has led to the system of university departments built around particular disciplines and it is the duty of the head of the department to conserve and develop the subject as well as teach it. This calls for a good deal of specialised thought and activity, which could, of course, be carried to excess, but need not be. With just a little effort. teachers of well-planned undergraduate courses can relate their subject to others, and enable the students to do some integrating on their own account. There are attempts being made now in some countries to evolve new courses cutting across the classical disciplines, but these are just as necessary as ever they were.
Undergraduate Teaching in Sydney.
The present quota for the intake of undergraduates in first year is 100. In addition, we may enrol some interstate students in second year. It is possible too that, by selection, the quality of students will improve, and that a larger proportion will pass through into the higher years. If present trends are maintained, we might expect about 60 students in each of the clinical years. There is no formal teaching of veterinary subjects in first year, but some general introductory lectures are given to make the students feel that they are part of the faculty.
Professional teaching begins in second year. There are five departments, Veterinary Physiology, Veterinary Pathology and Bacteriology, Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Surgery (new), and Animal Husbandry, which also has strong links with the Faculty of Agriculture. Some subjects are still taught by departments in the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Medicine, i.e. biochemistry, pharmacy, pharmacology, histology. Part-time lecturers teach parasitology, meat inspection and jurisprudence. There is no formal division into preclinical, paraclinical and clinical groups although these have some de facto standing. Instead, mainly for assessing the allocation of teaching time, we group related subjects:—
Anatomy, Histology.
Physiology, Biochemistry, Pharmacology.
Pathology, Microbiology, Parasitology and Meat Inspection.
Medicine (including Jurisprudence).
Surgery and Obstetrics.
Animal Husbandry (including Genetics, Nutrition, Animal Management, Animal Production).
In round terms, each group is regarded as of approximately equal value carrying much the same weighting for determining the award of honours at graduation, and taking up about the same time in the curriculum. Although some adjustments may be expected in the coming review of the curriculum, it is unlikely that they can be of a spectacular or revolutionary nature. The main change in recent years is that the Department of Veterinary Medicine has espoused the idea of teaching by animal species, but some general medicine is given in fourth year as a necessary preliminary.
With large numbers of students the technique of instruction must follow conventional lines. From the standpoint of organisation it is difficult to depart from orthodox lectures and practical classes for undergraduates. Clinical teaching is, of course, best conducted in very small groups, and for this the permanent staff can be supplemented by temporary instructors. Teaching aids, which are available, vary from subject to subject. In the Department of Pathology and Bacteriology, extensive use is made of printed lecture notes, and some of the fine films which are available from various sources. Library and museum facilities are improving. These are important if students are to be able to make profitable use of spare time. Extramural work is prescribed for much of the vacations. It has not yet been decided how much of the extramural work in fifth year will be carried on.
It is interesting to look back to the Sydney Veterinary School as it was before the last war. With a handful of staff and first year enrolments exceeding 40, graduates were turned out, who were not very much worse than the present day ones, people who made their mark subsequently in all branches of the profession, scientific, academic, private and governmental. This is not an argument against progress, but a reminder that the teaching of sincerity and right attitudes is more important than mere facts. The profession is well organised now. Young graduates can take up postgraduate studies here or abroad. intra- or extra-murally. First appointments to positions are usually in the status of “learner”. whether it is as assistant to a practitioner or in an official job. The most important years in a young veterinarian's life are those immediately following graduation. In Sydney we make no apologies for teaching people theory in their undergraduate years, as it is the basis for understanding the situations they encounter in their professional career. Our aim for the future is to increase the depth of understanding in our undergraduates by better teaching in better surroundings, and in our post-graduate students by the example of well conducted research in depth. In the past few years Ph.D.'s and higher doctorates have been awarded in the following fields. Veterinary Physiology (1 D.V.Sc., 1 D.Sc.. 8 Ph.D.) Veterinary Anatomy (1 D.V.Sc.). Veterinary Surgery (1 Ph.D.). Veterinary Pathology (2 D.V.Sc., 3 Ph.D.). At present, Ph.D.'s “in the process“ are: Veterinary Physiology 6; Veterinary Pathology 6; Veterinary Medicine 2.