Bristol Vet School 2026

Bristol is a highly regarded red-brick university, ranked amongst the top 10 in the UK. The year group size is anticipated to be 150 students for the 2021 intake for Veterinary Medicine. Bristol has also recently gained AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) accreditation. The first three years studying Veterinary Medicine at Bristol are based at the main university campus in Clifton, a beautiful leafy quarter of the city centre, with at least one day per week spent at the clinical campus in Langford.

The final two years of study are taught at the Langford campus (where you will find the bristol university veterinary hospital), a more rural area about 14 miles south of Bristol. Langford vet school possesses its own small animal hospital, farm animal / small animal / equine practices, diagnostic laboratories, dairy farm and commercial abattoir. This is an excellent veterinary hospital in Bristol.

The year group size at Bristol Vet School is roughly 150 students.

Dual campus teaching means that students can experience both city and rural life during their time at university. Bristol University is also known for being a particularly tight-knit community, and they run a ‘family system’ which pairs new students with ‘parents’ to help them settle into their first year at university.

The City of Bristol is also well known for being quite alternative/hipster, with lots of vibrant bars/clubs and vegan restaurants. It’s also a beautiful city, with some great architecture and lovely views around the suspension bridge.

Bath is also very easily accessible by train, and a lovely place to visit on days off. The Langford vet school has its own campus where you can enjoy vet school within the confines of excellent and newly refurbished settings.

The course at Bristol comprises a combination of lectures, seminars, independent learning and placements (the proportions of which vary from year to year, depending on stage in the course). Practical sessions begin in the first year at their renowned clinical skills laboratory, so you'll soon be getting hands-on.

In the preclinical years, anatomy and physiology are taught with emphasis on their practical relevance, often at the Clifton campus, followed by clinical years covering surgery and medicine. The final year at Bristol is primarily placements and independent study. Throughout this, you will be completing bristol vet school cpd to augment your studies.

Intercalation

Intercalation is encouraged and up to 20% of students at Bristol choose to do this during their veterinary degree.

Universities revise entry requirements between cycles, usually in August and September. Always confirm with the university before you apply.

Still sitting your GCSEs? Protect the grades this course screens for with 1-1 GCSE Maths, Biology and Chemistry tutoring from medics.

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Bristol does not have any specific work experience requirements for entry. Instead, within the Supplementary Assessment Questionnaire you will be asked to draw on your relevant experiences to support your answers.

Bristol do not generally place a lot of weight on the UCAS Personal Statement to assess applications, as their SAQ serves to assess applicants in a personal/professional capacity. However, they do state that they will occasionally use the Personal Statement to differentiate between applicants with similar academic and personal profiles, using the following criteria:

• Evidence of interest in, and motivation and commitment to, the study of Veterinary Science
• Attitude to studies
• Wider interests and contribution to the community
• Standard of written English

Applicants who meet the minimum grade entry requirements will be sent an SAQ (Veterinary Supplementary Assessment Questionnaire) to complete - this assesses personal attributes, awareness of the profession and work experience. If minimum grade and work experience requirements are met, then applicants are ranked based on the strength of their answers in the questionnaire and offers made accordingly. This is in addition to the bristol vet work experience form and the cpd for bristol vet school.

The SAQ is the Supplementary Assessment Questionnaire.

This is not available prior to you applying

What is the SAQ?

This is an additional set of questions that are emailed by the University of Bristol and replaces the traditional interview. It is used by the University of Bristol to help understand you better

What is included by Bristol Vet School in the SAQ?

It is split into two main sections - A & B

Section A - Work Experience - The Bristol Vet Work Experience Form

Here you must declare all work experience that has been completed, if the student has not completed enough they might be asked to complete some extra work - usually a MOOC or a reflective piece of work

Section B - Personal Qualities

This section is designed to assess the awareness of the qualities of a good vet student and ability to reflect on work experience.

We help with the SAQ - find out more here.

2:1 in their degree and BBB at A-level including Chemistry and one of Biology, Physics or Mathematics

Bristol’s combined Health Sciences Gateway programme has five veterinary places (146 applicants for 2019 entry). Successful completion of this gateway year allows automatic progression onto the five-year BVSc programme. For Gateway applicants, interviews consisted of Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI’s). In 2018 Bristol interviewed 49 Gateway applicants for five places. Gateway offers were made based entirely on interview score.

For the standard 5-year BVSc Veterinary Science (and graduate-entry route), the University of Bristol does not currently interview applicants. Selection is based on academic record plus a scored Veterinary Supplementary Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) assessing personal attributes, awareness of the profession and work experience, provided minimum grade and work-experience requirements are met.

An interview is only held in exceptional circumstances and would be conducted by at least two people. The Gateway to Veterinary Science route does use a Multiple Mini Interview (MMI), held in person at the Bristol Anatomy Centre; a published account of Bristol's earlier admissions describes a 5-station MMI (manned scenario/communication and problem-solving stations plus unmanned practical, calculation and data-interpretation tasks), though Bristol's current page does not state a fixed station count or duration.

Prepare with 1-1 vet school interview coaching and practise with our vet school interview questions guide.

Practise under timed conditions with our free generator. It builds a randomised circuit from real Bristol interview themes, with reading time, follow-up questions and a notes summary you can keep.

University of Bristol,Beacon House,Queens Road,Bristol,BS8 1QU,United Kingdom

• Tel: +44 (0)117 928 9000

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