IT TAKES considerable provocation for Dr Art Cosgrove, president of UCD and a man who usually keeps his powder dry in public, to make a statement as forceful as his recent one on the state of UCD's faculty of veterinary medicine. UCD operates the only school of veterinary medicine in the State, a faculty with a loo per cent employment rate. But the facilities in the school, which is based in Ballsbridge, Dublin, are now totally inadequate, according to Cosgrove.
In a statement issued last week he said serious educational deficiencies were arising from the inadequacy of the facilities, which threatened both experiential learning and the development of modern teaching methods.
Behind the UCD president's comments is a forthcoming report from the Veterinary Council that is likely to make depressing reading for those who care about veterinary education.
While the council has declined to comment on the report's contents before it is presented to the Minister for Education this week, it is known to contain trenchant criticism of the facilities at Ballsbridge. This may prove embarrassing to the Higher Education Authority and the Departments of Education and Agriculture, all of which are represented on a committee currently considering the situation of the school.
"This establishment was constructed originally in around 1900 at a time when veterinary medicine wasn't too far removed from leeches and bleeding and knocking horses down with ropes to castrate them" says Dr Michael Monaghan, head of the faculty of veterinary medicine.
According to Monaghan, the teaching of veterinary medicine in the facility is not a "tenable" proposition, a view which is likely to be shared by the Veterinary Council, which registers all veterinary graduates. The council's report, which will be published in the coming months, is critical of the physical facilities at Ballsbridge, regarding them as having passed their useful lifetime.
"The small animal consulting area, which is the area in which we teach students about small animal medicine and surgery, is operating in a building described by the Veterinary Council as a rabbit warren, Monaghan says. "The facilities just aren't suited to them."
The situation is not much better in the school's large animal accommodation - "Edwardian," Monaghan says. "The facilities for restraint are not suitable and the facilities for surgery are an embarrassment," he complains. "If we are looking to attract caseloads of an upmarket nature for the students, the customers are not going to be impressed."
The most depressing part of this whole story is that the problems in the school, which now appear to have reached critical level, are not unknown to the Department of Education or the HEA. Previous Veterinary Council reports have highlighted problems with the facilities and UCD itself has been making representations to the Department since 1978, all to no avail.
The university wants to move the school to a new purpose built facility on the Belfield campus. The cost of such a development is likely to be £20 million, of which UCD has already raised £2.5 million through sponsorship pledges.
In total, UCD believes it can provide 50 to 60 per cent of the total cost of a new school, including funds raised through the sale of the Ballsbridge site. It wants the Government to cover the remainder of the development costs.
"UCD has made and continues to make strenuous efforts to raise funds to bring the veterinary faculty to the Belfield campus," Cosgrove says. "But we have reached a point from where further progress cannot be possible without a positive commitment from the Government.
"Teaching and research in veterinary medicine are of such fundamental importance for the future of our agriculture and food industries that a Government commitment of financial support, separate from the budget of the Department of Education, is justified. Relocation to the campus in Belfield is imperative."
The committee formed to consider the problems of the school, chaired by the HEA and including representatives of the two Government departments and of UCD, is awaiting the results of a study being undertaken by UCD. When that study is completed, it will be considered by the committee and "a proposal of some kind", as a HEA spokesman put it, will be formulated.
"It's a big job," the HEA spokesman says. "You're talking about £20 million for around 300 students. At the same time, we do recognise that it is unsuitable. It's a Victorian building and it must be very hard to operate there."
UCD and, it's fair to say, the Veterinary Council believe that a new development is the only solution to the school's difficulties, since its shortcomings are now so extreme that any refurbishment package would probably be ineffective.
"This faculty will provide splendid employment opportunities for our agricultural and veterinary graduates," Cosgrove says. Would it not be ironic if we are to have our veterinary graduates educated abroad because of a lack of Government commitment to the only veterinary school in this island?"
A worst case scenario resulting from the Veterinary Council's report would see the council actually refusing to certify graduates unless improved facilities can be found for the school. In that case, if Government funding is not forthcoming, UCD will have to consider subcontracting its veterinary qualifications out to another institution, almost certainly one outside Ireland. The other option, raised by the prospect of continuing inaction, is the closure of the school.
"I suppose Ireland would have to ask itself if a veterinary school is a resource that Ireland needs to have," Monaghan says. "The kind of course we teach here is geared to Ireland's agricultural needs. We hear a lot in the media about certification and quality of our export foods and a primary instrument of that is veterinary certification. In a country in which agriculture is so much a part of the mix, it would be hard not to argue that Ireland needs a veterinary faculty of its own."
