Extra Mural Studies - GEP only

Extra-Mural Studies, or EMS, is a programme requirement of the all UK veterinary degrees mandated by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) and written into UK law in the Veterinary Surgeons Act (1966). Student’s EMS completions are assessed via feedback from placement providers, and via review of any personal EMS recording activities.

EMS should predominantly be completed outside semester time, during vacation periods. Students cannot miss classes to complete any EMS.

EMS is divided into Animal Husbandry EMS (AHEMS), completed first, and Clinical EMS (cEMS), completed in years 3-5 of the programme. EMS must be completed in this order, with all AHEMS finished and signed off before cEMS can begin.

The RCVS stipulates the number of weeks of each type of EMS which students must complete, which is currently 12 weeks of AHEMS and 26 weeks of cEMS. This document will focus on the requirements for AHEMS, as it is important to understand this before starting your BVM&S programme.

PLEASE BE AWARE that RCVS requirements may change, the above is correct at time of publication: please check their website for the latest information here.

AHEMS Species Requirements at the R(D)SVS

The R(D)SVS requires all students to complete the following by the 31^st July of their first GEP year or end of year 2 of the 5 year programme:

• Cattle: 2 weeks (strongly recommend minimum of 1 week UK dairy) 
• Sheep: 2 weeks (strongly recommend minimum of 1 week UK lambing) 
• Horses: 2 weeks 
• Dogs and Cats: 2 weeks (strongly recommend using these weeks to work with both species)
• Small Mammals: 1 week 
• Other Production Animal Unit (e.g. Poultry, Pigs, Gamebirds, Fish, Buffalo, Goat, other): 2 weeks (strongly recommend completing a pig and poultry week)
• Free Choice (any relevant species): 1 week 

These requirements are set by R(D)SVS and you are required to meet them as part of the programme. Note that AHEMS cannot be completed in a veterinary clinic and the focus should not be on practicing veterinary techniques.

Finding Placements

It is your responsibility to find suitable placements and submit the relevant paperwork to the EMS team in advance of each placement for approval. The School has resources to help you with this. We will explain the system to you when you start your BVM&S programme. Your first EMS placement is usually expected to occur during the Christmas break of your first year. Please do not try to arrange placements before you have started the course.

 What counts as an EMS week?

An EMS week is defined as the normal working week of the unit. A calendar week spans a seven-day period and an EMS week must represent the normal working week of the unit within that timeframe. This is likely to work out as working 5 or 6 days out of 7, and around 40 hours per week as a guideline. Note that working hours are likely to be longer for some species (e.g. when lambing).

Please note that students cannot make up a 40-hour total in 3 days and claim this as a week, or run ten days together and claim this as two weeks. Adequate rest breaks must be considered.

Financial cost of EMS

Please note that EMS is usually unpaid and will occupy a significant amount of your vacation time and as such does reduce your ability to take other paid employment during this time. We recommend that you carefully consider this when planning ahead for your course.

Placement Choice Guidelines

AHEMS placements should always allow you to be involved in the day-to-day care (husbandry) of the animals. It is in your own interest to ensure that there will be enough husbandry experience available to keep you busy and interested to maximize the educational opportunity. Consideration could be given to how much hands-on work the provider typically requires at the time you plan to visit? (e.g. there may be minimal handling of beef cattle at certain times of year, regardless of herd size) or if the placement has other students/volunteers attending? The number of other people on site is likely to impact on your experience.

AHEMS placements must involve husbandry of predominantly healthy animals, so placements within veterinary practices or at dog day care centres/grooming parlours etc will not be approved.

Further Information

We will go through all the EMS requirements and provide lots of opportunities for you to get help and advice once you have started your course, but if you have urgent questions in the meantime, please contact our EMS Administrator at ems2admin@ed.ac.uk. We endeavour to respond to all queries within 3 working days, but please note that response times may be longer during busy times.

You can view the RCVS guidance on EMS on their website here.