• Welcome Bethany Micketts to your Virtual Campus

    Studying Veterinary Science at the University of Pretoria

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Message from the Dean

Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Science – Prof Vinny Naidoo

Welcome to the University of Pretoria! Thank you for choosing UP, and welcome to a career in Veterinary Science or Veterinary Nursing. The Faculty of Veterinary Science is the only faculty of its kind in South Africa, the best Faculty of Veterinary Science in Africa, and a global top 50 veterinary school. Our veterinary programmes are internationally recognised, and will give you access to skills that will allow you to excel in your chosen field.

If you join our veterinary programme, after completion of your degree you will be able to practice in a field of your choice, from production to wildlife medicine. Our veterinary nurses are also able to select their field of practice, from providing nursing care at welfare organisations to working at state-of-the-art veterinary hospitals.

With us you will become the best you can be through training within our excellent facilities, including a clinic at the Orpen Gate of the Kruger National Park as well as through the superior caseloads our veterinary academic hospital manages annually. A unique feature of our programme is that in your final year, as a veterinary or nursing student, you will be responsible for the primary care of patients under the supervision of our specialist veterinary staff.

While studying with us, you will also learn about the agricultural and commercial role that animals play in society, the importance of their care, and compassion towards them. Your teaching will be grounded in the principle of One Health, which teaches you the importance of both healthy animals and healthy environments in helping people stay healthy. The COVID-19 outbreak is an excellent example of what can happen when this balance is interrupted.

Our faculty is self-contained on the Onderstepoort or OP Campus, which has access to state-of-the-art laboratories, an amazing skills lab and excellent animal management facilities where you will gain the necessary experience to work with a variety of different animal species. Our nursing students will spend their entire time at OP, while our veterinary students will spend their first year at the Hatfield Campus and the next five years at OP.

As a UP student, you’ll also be part of THE UP WAY of life. This means you will receive a high quality of teaching and learning support that will ensure that you graduate on time and are able to apply your knowledge and skills so you are ready to start your own business or land your first job.

THE UP WAY of doing things means that you’ll be an innovative and critical thinker who has a positive impact on the world and lives with compassion, respect and care for humans and animals. In our faculty, we are compassionate and we care for society by caring for animals and ensuring the sustainability of food production in poultry, sheep, or cattle farms.

I hope you’ll consider joining our profession, as there’s none better. It’s not everyone who can wake up in the morning and choose to work outdoors, and perhaps walk a rhino or even drink a cup of coffee with milk from a certified healthy herd of cows!

So Choose UP, and we hope to see you next year!

The Faculty of Veterinary Science

The Faculty of Veterinary Science and its campus in 2021

Explore Our Campus

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The Onderstepoort Campus compares favourably with the best in the world. It has access to state-of-the-art facilities, including multi-disciplinary laboratories, five academic departments, several research centres (for horses, wildlife and crocodiles) and a Skills Laboratory where students are taught by means of models and simulation. The Faculty’s hospital, the Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital, is the focus of its clinical service, rendering top-quality specialist, as well as first opinion veterinary services, to the community.

Academic Programmes

BVSc curriculum video

BVetNurs curriculum video

The University of Pretoria (UP) has earned the well-deserved reputation for teaching excellence for more than a century. Highly qualified academics, actively engaged in research and the generation of new knowledge, teach at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Read more about UP’s undergraduate programmes.

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Alternative Admissions

To BVSc & BVetNurse from BSc (Biological Sciences), BScAgric, etc

We're delighted that you're interested in studying with us.

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Download our faculty brochure

Download the brochure

A Student's Perspective

A day in the life of a UP Veterinary Science student

UP Voices

Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital

Student Accommodation

Welcome to TuksRes - "Your home away from home"

NOTE: Veterinary Science students are accommodated in Hatfield residences in their first year, and on the Onderstepoort Campus from second year onwards. Veterinary Nursing students are accommodated on the Onderstepoort Campus from first year onwards.

About Student Accommodation
TuksRes Intro
TuksRes Intro

Onderstepoort Campus Accommodation

OP Village

OP Village

Other Interests

Entrepreneurship at UP

Entrepreneurship at UP

Entrepreneurship at the University of Pretoria is about working towards an entrepreneurial university by providing the whole entrepreneurial process under one roof, taking you from an idea to commercialisation.

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Student Support

Student Support

The Department of Student Affairs supports you on your journey to success by helping you to further develop your strengths, looking after your wellness and health, making education accessible for students with disabilities, and ensuring good student governance.

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THE UP WAY

THE UP WAY

THE UP WAY is our way of life at the University of Pretoria. It is our ethos, our vibe, our way of life and what we stand for as an institution.

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Sport

Sport

With more than 30 sport clubs and 10 sport academies, TuksSport offers a home for dedicated sport people.

TuksSport not only focuses on top performers, but also on club contestants and recreational sport participants. It provides a comprehensive high performance support programme for participants on national and international level, including scientific and medical support, sport testing, training, fitness, technical and tactical expertise, sport injuries and sport psychology.

TuksSport @ UP – message from TuksSport Director

TuksSport UP Your Game

Click on the links below to view Panoramas

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The Javett Art Centre

The Javett Art Centre

With one foot firmly rooted in academia, and the other embedded in the public, the Javett-UP makes the Pan-African Artistic practices accessible, relevant and engaging.The building is on the south campus of the University of Pretoria and connects the Hatfield campus to the South Campus via a bridge over Lynnwood Road. Underneath the building, the student gallery links UP’s Departments of Architecture and Visual Arts and a number of other exhibition spaces, housing various temporary exhibitions.

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Career Services

Career Services

Earning a degree is a great achievement. But what happens when you’ve completed your studies? How do you find a job and gain experience? UP's Career Services office helps you to prepare for the real world.

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Arts and Culture

Arts and Culture

Your academic success is important, but university life is also about having fun and exploring your talents to become a well-rounded graduate who is ready for the world beyond university. At the University of Pretoria we have a vibrant student life and there are many arts, cultural, sporting, and academic extramural activities that you can participate in.

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International Students

International Students

The University of Pretoria (UP) enhances its international standing through multifaceted internationalisation programmes. The programmes are facilitated and coordinated by the International Cooperation Division (ICD), who ensure that the doors of UP are always open to international students, academics, administrative staff, collaborative researchers, policymakers, funding organisations and other stakeholders. On average, UP has over 4,000 international students annually.

The internationalisation programmes spearheaded by the ICD include:

  • International students (including short-term exchange programmes, full academic programmes, joint degrees)
  • International programmes and agreements (including visiting professors, conference attendance, institutional agreements)
  • International mobility projects (students, academic staff and administrative staff covered)

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Library

Library

The University of Pretoria boasts some of the best university libraries in South Africa. They provide a comprehensive information service for the University's students and staff.

By keeping abreast of the latest technological and professional advances and providing up-to-date information services, the library’s staff members and 11 site libraries are able to provide a relevant and stimulating environment for our students and staff.

Have a look at our world-class libraries:

Library – Message from the Director

Library

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Future Africa

Future Africa

The University of Pretoria’s Future Africa campus is the place where Africa’s leading scientists and scholars from across the world and from a broad range of disciplines come together to leverage the benefits of transdisciplinary research to address the grand challenges that face Africa and the world.

Issues of critical relevance to Africa are tackled: from sustainable development and good governance, citizen participation and human rights, to advancing innovation for the bioresource economy.

In a world where ideas and technologies evolve rapidly and the challenges we face are multifaceted and transnational, Africa needs a new generation of original thinkers with international perspectives, yet with a scholarly vision and voice that is rooted in Africa.

The Future Africa campus provides a dynamic living, learning and research environment where a community of scholars and other societal role players will engage to advance excellence in scholarship, dialogue and impact. Here the continent’s brightest young geneticists, chemists, economists, lawyers, engineers, social scientists and other specialists are able to work side by side in an environment that facilitates world-class creativity, collaboration and critical thinking.

Video on Future AfricaVideo on Future Africa

Click on the links below to view Panoramas

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Financial Aid

Financial Aid

University of Pretoria understands that studying at a tertiary level comes with many expenses for you and your family. Sometimes students find it difficult to cover all of their university fees along with the related costs like paying for textbooks, food, and transport. We have financial aid available to all students regardless of their household income, study programme or year of study.

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What hybrid learning is like at UP

What hybrid learning is like at UP

Hybrid = Contact + Online. UP’s hybrid teaching and learning model makes transitioning to fully online learning so much easier. Let’s hear what some of our students have to say...

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Postgraduate Academic Support

Postgraduate Academic Support

The University of Pretoria (UP) values its people and strives to create an enabling environment to induct researchers into a productive research culture. It is crucially important that researchers obtain support and encouragement when completing postgraduate qualifications, applying for grants, becoming rated or receiving negative feedback on submitted papers or applications.

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Students with disabilities

Students with disabilities

The University of Pretoria has an institutional commitment to ensure an integrated and inclusive learning experience for students with disabilities. UP’s Disability Unit supports students with disabilities in partnership with departments and faculties.

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