Curriculum Development at the Mongolian Vet School under the RVC-SVM Project

Curriculum Development at the Mongolian Vet School under the RVC-SVM Project

This Swiss Development Agency-funded project ended in October 2015 and Dr Ayona Silva-Fletcher and Dr Nigel Goode went to Mongolia for the final project meeting. Overall the progress made since the start of the project has been considerable. Among these the most significant are the new teaching facilities:

• The upgraded animal holding facility and large animal clinic will make remarkable changes to clinical teaching and student learning.
• The clinical skills laboratory will facilitate clinical skills teaching and assessment. Students are very engaged with the facilities and those we spoke to find it extremely useful.
• During our visit we saw animal husbandry / clinical teaching on several occasions - herder and goats used in the case based teaching session, an ovariohysterectomy on dog with students assisting, exploratory laparotomy on a dog and a horse visiting clinic with abscess on the final day.
• The new library and learning resources space is well utilized by the students.
• The new large new lecture theatre and the library that is currently under construction will make massive changes to teaching and for the students.
• The survey conducted using final year students at graduation to assess new D1C document is a very worthwhile exercise. This has led to the identification of areas that require more attention during teaching as well as areas that can be removed from D1C. The teaching sessions that we observed have given us a good indication regarding teaching strengths and areas that can be improved in individual teaching.

These are some photos that were taken when our staff visited the Vet School:

Visit 1

The first visit under the 'Faculty and Curriculum Development of School of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology (SVM), Mongolian Agricultural University in consultation with Royal Veterinary College (RVC), University of London, UK' was undertaken by Dr Ayona Silva-Fletcher and Dr Nigel Goode in May 2014.This first visit overviewed the SVM curriculum and opportunities for development.

Visit 2

Professor Peter Chantler and Dr Stephen Frean followed up this first visit with a trip in September 2014, looking at dissection, anatomy and interactive directed learning possibilities.

Dr Stephen Frean conducting anatomy dissections

Prof Peter Chantler doing a directed learning session

Whole animal anatomy teaching in the field

Visit 3

In October 2014, Professor Stephen May and Mr Kim Whittlestone visited SVM with the aim of developing the work-based learning components of the course.

Stephen examining a lame Mongolian race horse.

Visiting veterinary practices in Ulaanbaatar to explore opportunities for EMS. All veterinarians visited were keen to support student development.

Some of the SVM students engaged in how to improve their EMS experiences!