Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine is preparing for its biggest class expansion in decades.
After holding steady at about 80 students per class for the past ten years, the college plans to increase enrollment by nearly 50 percent in an effort to meet the growing demand for veterinarians.
According to the Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue, Dr. Bret Marsh, “I think it’s an opportunity for us to provide a Purdue education to more veterinarians. We have a large applicant pool. Currently, we take 84 students each fall, and we had 1930 applications for those 84 seats. At the same time, we have shortage areas in our state and across the country. So it’s an opportunity for us to provide a quality Purdue education to more veterinarians, to solve some of these underserved areas and to continue to serve the areas we have to this point.”
The expansion comes as rural communities across Indiana and the nation continue to struggle with a shortage of large-animal and food animal veterinarians.
Marsh continues, “We are a significant animal agriculture state, and that’s one of our initiatives as well, to make sure that we’re providing the coverage that we need. We’re number one in veal, number one in commercial ducks, number three in eggs, number three in pounds of turkey produced, number five in swine. And that all exists in a state that’s the smallest state geographically west of the Appalachian Mountains. And so there’s a lot of activity in this state.”
Marsh says the additional students will also support workforce needs in public health, companion animal care, research, and regulatory medicine.
Purdue’s expanded program is expected to help strengthen the pipeline of veterinary professionals entering food animal practice and other areas of veterinary medicine.
