In the unlikely event that all goes according to plan, UCD could have a new veterinary college exactly 100 years after its current home in Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin, was first established. There were sighs of relief in UCD recently when planning approval was given by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Council for a long awaited new veterinary college on the Belfield campus. Since 1901, when it was established as the Royal Veterinary College of Ireland, the vet school has resided in a purpose-built block in Shelbourne Road. What was, without doubt, an excellent building in its day came in for severe criticism last year. "The physical facilities . . . are totally inadequate in space and structure for the provision of a professional course in veterinary medicine to international university standards," noted a visitors' report, commissioned by the Veterinary Council. "The existing structure has passed its useful life and further tinkering is a long-term waste of money . . . the buildings and facilities warrant closure now," the report unambiguously concluded.
The Shelbourne Road site hasn't closed, of course, and is unlikely to do so before the year 2001 at the earliest. "If everything goes like clockwork then we could move at the end of 2001," says Dr Michael Monaghan, dean of the veterinary college, "but I would be surprised if we do. Building time alone will take 21 months." Once final planning approval is received, UCD must await Government funding (the development will cost £27 million) before it can proceed. The new veterinary college will include three standard lecture halls, two large - and a number of smaller - practical teaching labs, staff and student facilities, research labs and the veterinary library.
A new veterinary teaching hospital will be a major feature of the development. UCD's teaching hospital operates on a commercial basis and takes referrals from private practitioners. Fee income helps pay for hospital equipment, Monaghan notes.
A new hospital will mean that "the quality of our service will improve enormously," the dean predicts. "We would like to upgrade our equipment. More diagnostic equipment - higher capacity ultra scanners for example - and a range of equipment will put us in a better position to compete for research contracts." The new hospital will also enable the college to deal with larger numbers of animals. Although in the move to Belfield the veterinary college will double its space, it's unlikely that there will be an increase in the annual student intake, which currently stands at 80, including up to a dozen students from Northern Ireland.
That's because UCD's veterinary college is the only one on the island. "The professional view is that 80 is around the right number," Monaghan says. "There are years when a good proportion of graduates go to Britain to work, but then we get a lot coming back." Teaching veterinary medicine is staff-intensive: the number of students who can be taught is dependent on the number of staff. "You can't teach students to spay a cat in groups of 75 - they have to be broken down into smaller groups," Monaghan explains. Undergraduates apart, there are some 40 students involved in postgraduate research at the college. Some graduates enrol immediately on postgraduate programmes; others return after a spell in private practice; a third group come from academic backgrounds in science and agriculture, the dean notes. Research projects include work on transmissable spongiform encephalopathies, the control of bovine tuberculosis and parasitology.
The move to Belfield will be beneficial for a number of reasons. As the only veterinary college on the island, the school suffers from isolation. Being separated from the main campus is an added burden.
"Students will benefit from being on the university campus and participating in university life, which they currently miss out on," Monaghan observes. "From the research point of view the move it will be tremendously advantageous to be cheek-by-jowl with people from agriculture and science and to be able to interact with them. "Collaborative projects will be more possible now."
The visitors' report made a number of recommendations which are being acted upon, Monaghan says. An overhaul of the curriculum is under way; the faculty has been reorganised, a management committee set up and a staff development programme established. And the college is forging alliances with other veterinary schools abroad - Iowa State University in the US is an example. Rather than viewing the visitors' report as a negative, UCD's veterinary college has regarded it as a call to action. "The report has provided me with a route map for my time in office," the dean remarks. "It has helped us move forward and make changes."
