Employment of female and male graduates of US veterinary medical colleges, 2006

Trends in gender, employment, salary, and debt of graduates of US veterinary medical schools and colleges

OBJECTIVE

To characterize trends in gender, employment, starting salaries, and educational debt of graduates of US veterinary medical schools and colleges from 1988 to 2007.

DESIGN

Meta-analysis. Sample Population-Veterinary medical graduates from 26 or 27 of 27 US veterinary schools and colleges from 1988 through 2007.

PROCEDURES

Data were obtained from surveys published in the JAVMA. A chi2 test for trend was used to analyze trends in choices of employment and educational indebtedness for the veterinary graduate populations over time.

RESULTS

The greatest changes in employment occurred in predominantly large animal practice, which attracted 10.7% of new graduates in 1989 but only 2.2% in 2007, and in advanced study, which attracted 15.2% of new graduates in 1989 and 36.8% in 2007. In 2007, 75% of graduates were women, but this gender shift was not associated with the decline in the percentage of graduates entering rural practice. From 1989 through 2007, starting salaries in private practice increased at a rate of 4.60%/y. During the same period, educational debt increased at an annual rate of 7.36%, or 60% higher than the rate of increases for starting salaries. As a result, debt at graduation increased from 1.1 times the starting salary in 1989 to 2.0 times the starting salary in 2007.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Veterinary students are now more in debt than they have ever been. This trend together with a substantial increase in the rate of interest charged for government-backed education loans create conditions for new graduates that appear unsustainable.

Addressing educational challenges in veterinary medicine through the use of distance education

The veterinary profession is currently facing many educational challenges, including an insufficient capacity to train and educate veterinarians for the multiple disciplines within the profession, a shortage of veterinarians in private and public practice, a shortage of faculty, a lack of human and professional diversity, and a rising cost of education resulting in extreme student debt loads. As a methodology for teaching, distance education (DE) has the potential to address many of these issues. By its very nature, DE can increase the capacity of current facilities and faculty. In addition, DE can allow students to acquire the necessary knowledge at less cost. This article describes a model for incorporating DE in the form of interactive Web-based courses, in conjunction with short, intensive residential programs, for the lecture portions of courses taught in the pre-veterinary, veterinary, and post-veterinary educational periods. In this model, the Web-based courses are used to convey the necessary core knowledge required at each step of the educational process. The residential portions are then used to apply the knowledge in such a way as to combine clinical applications with research in basic and applied sciences. Distance education can provide increased flexibility, high-quality educational experiences, and a less costly alternative for students while maximizing the reach of current faculty efforts and the capacity of existing physical structures.