AVMA COE updates emergency conditions policy

The AVMA Council on Education (COE) has updated its emergency conditions policy as well its policy governing how countries outside the United States and Canada license U.S. and Canadian graduates of COE-accredited colleges.

Emergency conditions policy

The emergency conditions policy was included in the COE’s policies and procedures in December 2020, and the council retained it as an active policy during its March 2021 meeting. The council also amended the policy to allow the council to extend the required timeline of a verification site visit, for causes related to emergency conditions. The council also clarified the substantive change reporting expectations during emergency conditions. 

AVMA COE policy change

Also during the March meeting, the council revised its policy requiring countries outside the U.S. and Canada that have COE-accredited colleges to confer licenses to U.S. and Canadian graduates of COE-accredited colleges through a process no more rigorous than that required of graduates of the COE-accredited veterinary college(s) in that country. (See Section 6.4.1 of the COE Accreditation Policies and Procedures of the AVMA Council on Education.)

The COE recognized that licensure requirements are independent of educational quality, the assessment of which is the COE’s charge. The COE also recognized that colleges of veterinary medicine do not have the authority to dictate licensure requirements.  Rather than making  a non-U.S., non-Canadian college’s COE-accreditation status contingent on the actions of that country’s licensing authority, the new policy states that the college must demonstrate that it has made its best efforts to encourage the licensing authority to recognize graduates of U.S. and Canadian COE-accredited colleges as having met equivalent educational standards as the graduates of the COE-accredited college in that country, and to confer licenses to U.S. and Canadian graduates of COE-accredited colleges through a process no more rigorous than that required of graduates of the COE-accredited veterinary colleges in that country.

Change to accreditation standards

Also during the March meeting, the COE made small changes to its accreditation standards related to research programs (Standard 10) and outcome assessment (Standard 11).

Accreditation actions

The council also made accreditation decisions related to numerous veterinary colleges, including three that had comprehensive site visits conducted in Fall 2020:

• University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine
• University College Dublin School of Veterinary Medicine
• University of Missouri-Columbia College of Veterinary Medicine

The council also granted provisional accreditation to Texas Tech University School of Veterinary Medicine effective March 4, 2021.

View all of the COE’s accreditation actions.

Get COE updates by email

Additional details of all of the COE’s actions were outlined in the latest issue of the COE Standard newsletter, which was emailed to subscribers on Monday. To stay informed on all important COE actions, subscribe to the COE Standard at avma.org/Newsletters.