The Clinical Scholar Programme
Professor Josh Slater BVM&S PhD DipECEIM MRCVS, European Specialist in Equine Medicine,
Professor of Equine Clinical Studies, Royal Veterinary College
Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were an initiative that had long-lasting welfare benefits, benefits
that continued long after the funding had stopped and which continued to spread like ripples across
the surface of a pond?
The clinical scholar programme does exactly this and I am going to spend the next few minutes explaining
how the programme works. I'll finish with the story of one particular scholar, our first scholar in fact,
that shows precisely how the programme represents excellent investment in equine welfare.
Clinical scholarships are one of the Trust’s three welfare funding initiatives: all are interdependent
and benefit from each other. Scholarships fund people and provide advanced clinical and research training
for talented young veterinarians.
Typically, scholars have between two and four years of post-graduate clinical experience in equine
practice or an internship in a specialist facility followed by equine practice. The scholarships
are very popular and hence highly competitive which means that it is the cream of our young equine
vets who are selected to become scholars. You will see later from the achievements of the Trust's scholars
that this rigorous selection really has, and continues to, pay dividends for equine welfare.
The interdependent nature of the three initiatives is a key ingredient: buildings provide clinical
facilities in which scholars are trained and the scholars contribute to welfare research projects.
Scholarships fund three-year structured training programmes in a specific clinical discipline
for example medicine, surgery or anaesthesia in elite centres with internationally recognised
experts as training supervisors.
Training is focussed on cutting-edge clinical practice, especially diagnostic and treatment techniques,
with scholars given increasing responsibility as they gain experience and confidence. Around one-third
of the scholarship is spent on a welfare-related research project in some cases integrated into one of
the Trust’s welfare research grants where scholars gain experience not just in research but in a range
of transferable scientific skills.
Why is all this a good thing? The scholars become the next generation of clinical experts - the equivalent
of consultants in the NHS - and gain recognition by achieving a specialist postgraduate clinical Diploma.
So why is the clinical scholar programme good for equine welfare? By investing in people who become equine
specialists, the programme has long-lasting welfare benefits: the scholars go on to set standards, become
opinion leaders, improve the knowledge and skills of others through education and conduct welfare related
clinical and basic science research.
The programme began in 1983. Since then 36 scholarships have been funded and 26 scholars have completed
programmes in a wide range of clinical disciplines: surgery, medicine, anaesthesia, epidemiology, diagnostic
imaging and pathology. Scholarship programmes have run in the UK veterinary schools and the Animal Health
Trust and five have run as partnerships between veterinary schools and elite equine practices.
The value of scholarships is immediately apparent when we look at what the scholars who have completed
programmes are doing now: they are providing clinical expertise in veterinary schools, referral practice
and general practice; some have gone onto further research training. They are working around the world
in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Australia and you will see their
