The RCVS Privy Council has approved changes to the Statutory Exam which has to be taken by veterinary surgeons who hold a veterinary degree that is not recognised by the RCVS.

The changes are designed to make the process more accessible and the College says most were proposed as a result of candidate feedback. They are:

  • Candidates will now be able to take re-sits of the written exam papers for each of the 3 clinical subjects in the same year, meaning that they no longer have to wait a whole year until the next Stat Exam process.
  • Candidates will now be able to pay for the written exam stage and the objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) stage separately, reducing the costs that candidates have to pay in one go.
  • Candidates who pass the written exam but fail one or more clinical domains of the OSCE will be allowed to proceed directly to the individual failed clinical domains of the OSCE the following year, rather than having to sit all the written papers and all the clinical domains of the OSCE again.
  • The RCVS will be able to keep the cost of the exam updated in-line with inflation.

The changes will come into effect from 1 January 2025, in time for the 2025 Stat Exam cohort.

Dr Linda Prescott-Clements, RCVS Director of Education, said: “We have been listening to the concerns of various stakeholders, including those who have undertaken the Stat Exam previously and veterinary employers, and we used this feedback to work with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) to come up with a set of practical, deliverable changes that improve the experience of Stat Exam for all candidates, and hopefully alleviate some of the stress involved around timescales, opportunity and finance.

“These changes will make the exam more accessible, as it will allow candidates to have two attempts at the written papers within the same diet, which need to be passed before being allowed to proceed to the practical exam and it will also help improve accessibility to the exam from the perspective of candidate finances.

www.rcvs.org.uk/statutory-membership-exam

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