Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies

Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies

Former names	Clyde Street Veterinary College, Dick Veterinary College, Royal (Dick) Veterinary College
Type	Veterinary school
Established	1823
Affiliation	University of Edinburgh
Head of School	David Argyle
Location	Edinburgh, Scotland
Website	http://www.ed.ac.uk/vet

The Royal Dick School of Veterinary Studies, commonly referred to as the Dick Vet, is the veterinary school of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and part of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine the head of which is Sir John Savill. David Argyle FRSE has been head of the school since 1 November 2011.

The school was ranked 1st in the UK by the UK Government in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework and the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and 2nd in the UK by the Complete University Guide 2014 and Times Good University Guide 2014 for veterinary studies.^[1] In 2015, QS World University Rankings ranked the veterinary school 9th in the world for veterinary medicine.^[2]

It is known for the cloning of Dolly the sheep which took place in 1996 at the Roslin Institute by Sir Ian Wilmut FRSE.

History

Originally called the Highland Society’s Veterinary School,^[3] Edinburgh, the Dick Vet, as it came to be known, was established by William Dick, a former student of the anatomist John Barclay of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.^[4] The first regular classes at the school were begun in November 1823,^[5] although lectures to small groups of students had been provided for four years prior to this date. That first session of regular classes was financed by student fees and a grant from the Highland Society of Scotland at Edinburgh,^[6] of which John Barclay was a director. Mary Dick, William's elder sister, was reputed to have been instrumental, from the early days, in the administration of the school.

Although an autonomous institution, the students also attended the lectures in (human) medicine at the University of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Clyde Street

In 1833, William Dick, who was by then a successful veterinary practitioner and teacher, paid for the erection of purpose-built accommodation near the site of his father’s forge in a Clyde Street courtyard. William lived adjacent at 15 Clyde Street.^[7] (Today Multrees Walk is approximately where Clyde Street was.^[8]) This was the base for the school until it moved to its next site at Summerhall in 1916. In 1839, his school officially became a College and William Dick was given the title Professor. By the time of Dick's death in 1866, the over 2000 students he had taught were to be found throughout the world. Among them were the founders of veterinary schools in Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United States. Upon his death, Dick bequeathed his College in trust to the Burgh Council of Edinburgh.

It was officially named Dick’s Veterinary College following a request made by his sister, in 1873, in response to a crisis caused by the establishment of the rival New Veterinary College set up by alumnus and former Principal William Williams. Williams had taken with him the majority of the students, and the library. The two schools existed amicably within 100m of one another in Edinburgh’s New Town until 1904 when the Williams' school moved to Liverpool, England, forming the basis of the University of Liverpool Faculty of Veterinary Science. The Royal (Dick) Veterinary College was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1906.

Summerhall

Orlando Charnock Bradley was Principal of the Dick Vet when it moved in 1916 to the south side of Edinburgh, to another purpose-designed building, at Summerhall.^[9] In 1951 the college was reconstituted as The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, an integral part of the University of Edinburgh, and became a full Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in 1964. Reorganisation of the university in 2002 resulted in the abolishment of Faculties, and the Dick Vet once again became The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, one of the four Schools within the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.

In 2009, Scottish Television filmed a five-part documentary at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies.^[10] Some of the cases shown on the documentary follow a wild swan needing an endoscopy, a horse in emergency colic surgery, a skunk being neutered, a chameleon with an eye infection, and the removal of a tumour near a cat’s heart.^[11] STV filmed a second documentary in 2010.

Since 2013, Summerhall is now a major international art museum and arts hub which has exhibited over 200 artists in two years as well as many theatre, music and literature events in the building.

Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies Main Building, Easter Bush Campus

Easter Bush Veterinary Campus

In 2011, the Summerhall site was vacated and the staff and students relocated to a new teaching building on the Easter Bush campus, 7 miles (11 km) south of the City. For the first time since 1962 all the veterinary facilities, together with The Roslin Institute, were consolidated on one campus. The faculty's undergraduate degree in Veterinary Medicine (BVM&S) is accredited by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in the UK, and by the American Veterinary Medical Association in North America. In September 2013, the National Avian Research Facility was opened on the Easter Bush campus.

The Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education

The Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education (JMICAWE) is a hub of expertise on animal welfare education, collaborating with international universities, governments, charities and NGO partners to advance the understanding of animal welfare issues.

Recent projects have included investing in the Clinical Skills Lab at the Dick Vet School, providing students with animal alternatives on which to practice; including a new equine colic simulator. They have also developed a new online Masters programme in International Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law which joins the on-campus Masters in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare. These programmes are supported by The Scottish Rural College allowing students to benefit from being taught by many of the best animal welfare experts in the country.

Notable alumni

• Joseph Henry Carter (1857-1930), President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 1920
• Min Chueh Chang, clinical fellow in agricultural science, co-inventor of the combined oral contraceptive pill and winner of the Albert Lasker Award
• Robin Coombs, (1921–2006, grad. 1943), who devised the ′Coombs test′, a critical diagnostic test for use in haematology and blood transfusion^[12]
• John Boyd Dunlop, (1840–1921, grad. 1859?60), inventor of the first practical pneumatic tyre, and founder of Dunlop Rubber Company
• Sir Frederick Fitzwygram, (1823–1904), president of the RCVS (1875–77) and as such unified the veterinary profession
• George Fleming (1833–1901, grad. 1855), founder of the Veterinary Journal in 1875, architect of the 1881 Vet Surgeons Act^[13]
• James Law, the first professor of veterinary medicine in the United States (Cornell)
• James McCall, established the Glasgow Veterinary College in 1862^[14]
• Duncan McNab McEachran, (1841–1924, grad. 1861), co-founder of the Upper Canada Veterinary School in 1863, founder of the Montreal Vet College in 1866,^[15]
• Albert E. Mettam, (1866–1917) first principal of Royal Vet College, Dublin^[16]
• Hamish Moore, (grad. 1975),^[17] maker, musician and teacher of Scottish Bagpipes, especially the Scottish Smallpipes.
• Jotello Festiri Soga, (grad. 1886), first South African veterinary surgeon,^[18]
• Donald Sinclair, (1911–1995, grad. 1933), portrayed as Siegfried Farnon in Alf Wight's (James Herriot) novels
• Brian Sinclair, (1915–1988, grad. 1943), the brother to Siegfried Farnon in Alf Wight's (James Herriot) novels, portrayed as Tristan Farnon
• Andrew Smith, founder of the Ontario Veterinary College, Canada, the oldest veterinary college in the Americas
• Sir Stewart Stockman, built first UK research laboratories (Weybridge), president of the RCVS (1923–24)
• Harry Steele-Bodger (1896–1952, grad. 1922), president of the British Veterinary Association^[19]
• Noah M. Wekesa, (1936 - ), Minister for Science and Technology in the Kenyan Government
• William Williams, (1832–1900), the Welsh veterinary surgeon who founded of the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh in 1873 (which went on to become the Faculty of Veterinary Science of the University of Liverpool) and author of several standard works on veterinary science
• Henry Felix Clement Hebeler CBE, (1917-1989), president of the British Veterinary Association (1958-59)

Notable Staff

• Prof Robert Stewart MacDougall FRSE LLD (1862-1947)^[20]

References

External links

• Official website
• "Royal support for £40m investment at veterinary college", The Herald, 13 June 2006

Coordinates: 55°51′55″N 3°12′00″W / 55.86528°N 3.20000°W / 55.86528; -3.20000