A day in the life at the University of Pretoria: 16 January 2018

On this "Day in the life of the University of Pretoria", 16 January 2018, the UP Senate agreed to revise the post graduate diploma in Animal Welfare. These adjustment to the diploma included the introduction of two new modules, one on small animal clinical behaviour and another on small animal behaviour and welfare.

The Department of Companion Animal Clinical Studies within the Faculty of Veterinary Science introduced a postgraduate diploma to replace the previous honours programme. In 2017, the Faculty hosted several courses on various aspects of animal welfare, facilitated by an international team coordinated by the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM) in Teramo, Italy. These courses were part of a twinning agreement between the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Veterinary Science and IZSAM, funded by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Their primary aim was to build veterinary professional capacity in South Africa by training animal welfare experts to implement OIE animal welfare standards.

By 2018, the Department had enrolled a record number of postgraduate students (59) across MMedVet, MSc, and PhD programmes. The honours degree was officially discontinued that year and replaced with three postgraduate diplomas: PGDip (Animal Welfare), PGDip (Veterinary Clinical Sciences), and PGDip (Veterinary General). This shift aimed to increase postgraduate enrolments and establish the postgraduate diploma as a pathway for both veterinary and non-veterinary candidates into MSc programmes

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