Costs of Studying Veterinary Medicine at Cambridge

Please note that every effort has been to ensure that the course costs given below for courses within the Veterinary Medicine Tripos were accurate at the time of publication.

The University reserves the right to review and revise the costs without prior notification, and you are advised that their publication here serves only as an indicator of course costs for current and future years. The publication of this information does not form part of any contractual arrangement of costs associated with studying at the University.

The University prospectus gives helpful advice for all students about the costs of studying in Cambridge.

In addition to the standard living costs, students of Medicine or Veterinary Medicine should expect to have to meet the following costs:

 

Estimated additional course costs, 2025-26

Veterinary Medicine (Pre-clinical)

Years 1 and 2

  • Two Lab coats, overalls, waterproof trousers, wellington boots (with toe protector) – Estimated cost £84
  • Dissection kit, gloves, safety glasses, loan of locker key, loan of dog skeleton – £40
  • University approved calculator (optional) – Estimated cost £14
  • Prospective applicants should be aware that lecture material is provided on an online platform and they should therefore have a suitable device, for example a laptop – Cost will depend on the type of device you choose to purchase.


Year 3

  • Costs dependent on the subject taken during Year.

Student Device Specification (updated 07.03.2024):

The following specifications are issued to help you choose a suitable device, costs of new devices will depend on choice, but existing devices, if less than four years old, are likely to be fine. If students are in financial difficulties, they can reach out to their college.

The Faculty of Biology has issued minimum specification guidelines for laptops that relates to the materials it provides:

  • Windows: 10 and 11 on 64-bit platforms
  • MacOS: OS Big Sur version 11 and higher
  • OpenGL 2.0 graphics driver
  • CPUs newer than 2011 (Intel Sandy Bridge or newer)
  • Minimum SSE 4.2 in AMD processors and CPU
  • A broadband internet connection (0.15Mbps upload speed)
  • A working internet connection during installation so that the configuration file can be downloaded

Note: Our digital examinations not run on Google Chromebooks, virtual machines, machines running Linux, tablets, or mobile phones. Depending on the security settings implemented by the institution for each test, candidates may be required to have Admin rights to their device.

Veterinary Medicine (Clinical)

Years 4, 5 and 6

  • Essential items, including basic stethoscope, digital thermometers and forceps (full details listed on Department website) – Estimated cost £20
  • Yard boots (steel toe-capped leather boots) – Estimated cost £30-40
  • Many students choose to buy a higher quality stethoscope in later years, plus a fob watch for use in theatre (optional).
  • White theatre shoes (for Year 6) – Estimated cost £30
  • Protective clothing for theatre (for Year 6) – Estimated cost £6.18
Cambridge is the only UK  vet school to provide a limited yearly payment to help towards covering the costs of preclinical and clinical Extramural Studies placements during the vacations.  

This level of payment is subject to change but maybe in the region of £150-£300 per year.  Whilst some students are able to complete EMS placements at very little cost by commuting short distances and living with parents, relatives and friends, others have indicated that they spend around £2000 to £2500 on travel and accommodation over the 6 years.  It should be noted that most EMS placements are unpaid, and students also lose out on the opportunity to carry out paid work whilst undertaking EMS.