Press release

Whilst the Faculty is acclaiming its new graduates in mortar boards and gowns this Saturday, June 26, it is congratulating itself for once again being on the EAEVE accredited European veterinary faculties.

2010 is of a fine vintage for the University of Liège's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. In effect it is once again amongst the faculties accredited by the European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education.

The stakes are sizeable ones. The EAEVE is mandated by the European Commission to evaluate if the jointly agreed quality criteria in the education and training for futue vets are being respected. Out of the 110 veterinary education establishments in Europe, 98 are members of the EAEVE, and their belonging to the association obliges them to be subject to an evaluation by outside experts every ten years.

Professor Pierre Lekeux, the Dean of the ULg's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, explains: 'The risk of not being on the list of 'approved' establishments is that a graduate of our faculty cannot practice his or her profession outside of Belgiulm's French Speaking Community. It is thus the European value of the degree awarded by the ULg which is at stake!'

"An impressive come-back on the ‘approved'-list"

With a majority of French students and close to half of the Belgian students who graduate at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine leaving to practice their profession abroad, one can easily understand the satisfaction of the Liège academic authourities on reading the conclusions of the EAEVE evaluation report, which re-estabishes the ULg on the list of 'approved' European veterinary establishments.

« The Université de Liège is a great example of a faculty that has celebrated an impressive come-back on the ‘approved'-list », notes the EAEVE. The European association in particular appreciated the biosecurity procedures (SOP, Standard Operating Procedures), which the Faculty put in place in record time, to such an extent that the biosecurity manual it designed is already considered as the benchmark on the European level.

In 2000, the EAEVE had not approved the University of Liège's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, then confronted with an inflow of students which went beyond its teaching capacities. In parellel with measures concerning non-resident students adopted by a decree by the French speaking community, the ULg has aided its  Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in progressively doubling  its clinical personnel support, in agreeing to invsetment in infrastructure and state of the art equipment, and in approving the reforms of its course programme.

The glowing report delivered by the EAEVE thus rewards a decade of continuous effort by the ULg to guarantee the quality of the education offered by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, one of its flagships, the only faculty in French speaking Belgium to organise a complete curriculum in veterinary medicine studies.

Graduates in caps and gowns

The tradition dates back to the Middle Ages for European universites but it is in the United States and in the Commonwealth that one witnesses the most often new graduates proudly wearing their caps and gowns at such ceremonies. This tradition is initiating a come back in Europe and, at the University of Liège, it will be followed for the first time during the degree award ceremony for the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, on Saturday June 26, at the Palais des Congrès in Liège.

On this occasion close to 250 students will be proclaimed Doctors of veterinary medicine, an important step before beginning their professional lives. As if to mark a fiinishing point to their six years of study, these new graduates will submit to another tradition, that of the spectacular throwing of their mortar boards which habitually marks such ceremonies.

Graduate students, families and friends, academic figures (the whole of the Faculty's teaching body, also in caps), representatives form the professional world and that of politics, etc.; there will be over 1000 people at this special cerelony, which requires the largest hall available at the Liège Palais des Congrès, no ULg auditorium being capable of hosting such a numerous crowd.

It is also to be noted that this Faculty of Veterinary Medicine ceremony also presages a kind of 'Tour de France', as close to 75% of the graduates, whose home town will be cited, come from the Hexagon! Generally accompanied by their parents and other family members, who sometimes undertake very long journeys to attend this event, these students will also contribute to the various assets of the region being discovered on the eve of the first departures on holiday!

Programme of the award ceremony, Saturday June 26

Liège Palais des Congrès, at 15h00

• Proclamation
• Address by the Rector, Bernard Rentier
• Address by the youngest graduate of this intake
• Address by Dean Pierre Lekeux
• The cap throwing ceremony
• Reception