School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences

We continue to assemble a team of world-class animal and veterinary academics who collectively bring together a wealth of research knowledge and opportunities for the School.

With a strong student focus and teaching excellence, we are developing leading-edge veterinary and animal sciences curricula. The programs focus on educating students for careers across a wide range of animal-based disciplines.

BSc Pre-Veterinary has now been renamed as BSc Veterinary Bioscience and our first cohort of students graduated at the end of 2010. The clinical component of the program officially named the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree will have its first graduates at the end of 2013.  Veterinary Science training requires completion of both degrees to educate graduates for registration as veterinarians throughout Australia and overseas in countries currently accepting graduates of other Australasian veterinary schools.
This school also offers three-year BSc (Animal Science) program.

In addition to the undergraduate students, we already have honours and PhD students. By the time we have the full DVM cohort at Roseworthy, we will have in the order of 650 students in the school. We will grow to about 100 staff on the Roseworthy campus, thus thoroughly reinvigorating the campus and becoming the major animal and veterinary research and clinical centre for the State.

The School will deliver its curriculum in an integrated and innovative way. Traditional schools tend to compartmentalise the preclinical and clinical subjects but we are delivering greater integration to allow introduction of clinical examination and basic problem-solving skills at a much earlier stage in the program. Communication skills and critical thinking will be fostered through clinical problem-based learning, presentations and research opportunities.

The Companion Animal Health Centre at the Roseworthy Campus was opened to the public in 2010. The centre is housed in the Veterinary Science building which also houses new preclinical teaching laboratories with specialised anatomy and physiology areas and a surgical skills suite.  In addition, the school provides both equine and production animal ambulatory services and has approval to build an Equine Health and Performance Centre due to open in the latter half of 2013.

The School continues to develop partnerships with veterinary practices and State Government agencies to allow co-localisation of facilities to enhance the exposure of students to a wide range of animal and veterinary skills and professional practice types. We have the South Australian Research and Development Institute’s (SARDI) Marine Biosecurity facility being built alongside the new pathology suite to enhance collaborative research and training in Aquatic Health at Roseworthy.


Professor Kym Abbott, Head of School