Wipe rural and regional vet student debt recommended in new report

The report, penned by the Veterinary Schools of Australia and New Zealand, is the first significant report into veterinary education in more than two decades.

It found that the table was set for a nationwide workforce shortage and many of the issues start the moment a future vet steps foot into a university.

Despite a growing demand for veterinary services, there is inadequate funding to meet the cost of teaching the profession. Salaries are also becoming uncompetitive with other professions and there is a deteriorating wellbeing across the sector.

Regional communities are already struggling to recruit and retain vets. The report recommended student debt relief for vets who serve in a rural community.

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Earlier this year, the government passed similar legislation to wipe or reduce the student debt of doctors or nurse practitioners who live and work in rural and remote Australia.

Australian Veterinary Association chief executive David Andrews said extending the policy to vets would cost less than $5 million a year, while providing dozens of willing professionals to communities that desperately needed them.

"Despite the important role of vets in animal agricultural industries, workforce shortages could see access to veterinary services in regional and rural areas collapse," Dr Andrews said.

"Government's bank on the $70 billion contribution of the agricultural sector to the Australian economy but it's an industry which has been left exposed by chronic under investment in the veterinary workforce.

"In 2023 alone, veterinary practices have closed in Parkes and Wee Waa in NSW, Jamestown in South Australia, leaving major farming towns without access to veterinary services."

The report also found veterinarian courses are the most expensive to deliver in the country, costing 150 per cent of the overall average of all fields of studies.

The costs are not entirely covered by Commonwealth funding and student fees, so universities have to dip into the funds of other facilities to support vet courses.

Schools are often reluctant to scale up the number of students, as it would cause the university's losses to mount.

The report recommended the federal government move quickly to increase the funding rate universities received per vet student by 30 per cent to remove the student cohort bottleneck.

Sydney University veterinary science head of school Jacqueline Norris said the funding shortfall meant without structural change, there would be increasing sustainability pressures for the veterinary industry.

"At the University of Sydney, on average over the past four years, the annual funding gap per full-time Commonwealth-supported veterinary student has been 36 percent, or almost $20,000 each," Professor Norris said.

"We know that many other universities face similar funding shortfalls in sustaining high-quality veterinary science programs in the national interest."

Recommendations include new and broader pathways for entry to the profession, paid apprenticeships while studying, mandatory mentoring and enhancing the wellbeing of vets to help address the workforce crisis.

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