It has been announced today that the South East Technological University will host one of the new veterinary courses in the country.
The Government has sanctioned two new veterinary degrees courses, the other is to be hosted at the Atlantic Technological University in Donegal.
The announcement was made by Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue and Minister for Higher Education Patrick O’Donovan at The National Ploughing Championships in Co. Laois.
This will be the first time that students can study veterinary medicine outside of UCD, with 80 students expected to graduate each year in total, 40 will graduate from SETU.
Study will be based at Kildalton Agricultural College in Kilkenny and will mean that students won’t have to travel to Dublin to study veterinary medicine.
The current timeline for intake will begin in the 2026 academic year.
Wexford Senator Malcolm Byrne is at the Ploughing Championships today and he has reacted to the announcement:
“We’ve really good news for the southeast today that the South East Technological University will be hosting one of the country’s new veterinary medicine courses.
This is great news for SETU. The course will be based at the Kildalton Campus in Kilkenny, but it obviously means that students from the south east won’t have to go to UCD or further afield
to study veterinary into the future.
The plan is that from the beginning of the academic year 2026, there will be 40 veterinary medicine places available at the vet college in SETU.
This is really welcome and positive news for the region.”
John Carroll, lecturer in crop science at SETU Wexford, says it will be a major boost for the newly established University:
“As a new university a new vet school will make our name internationally renowned.”
