Pakistan is currently producing veterinary graduates through nearly 20 institutions offering the five-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree program. On paper, this expansion appears to be a sign of progress in higher education. However, in reality, it has exposed a serious structural flaw in veterinary training: the inability of most institutions to produce clinically competent graduates with adequate hands-on experience.

The core issue lies in the location and operational model of these institutions. Most veterinary universities and colleges are situated in urban environments where livestock populations are minimal and sick animal cases rarely reach teaching hospitals. As a result, students spend the majority of their academic years in classrooms and laboratories, learning theoretical concepts without meaningful exposure to real clinical cases. Veterinary medicine, however, is not a purely academic discipline; it is a practical profession that demands strong diagnostic skills, animal handling experience, surgical confidence, and field-based decision-making ability.

In such an environment, students often graduate without sufficient exposure to real-life veterinary emergencies, herd health management, infectious disease outbreaks, or field-level animal treatment practices. This creates a dangerous gap between academic qualification and professional competence.

At present, the internship or clinical training component is limited to approximately four months during the 10th semester. This duration is grossly inadequate for developing professional competence in a field as demanding as veterinary medicine. Four months of limited exposure cannot compensate for five years of insufficient clinical interaction. Consequently, many graduates enter the profession without the confidence or practical ability required to handle real-world veterinary challenges.

The veterinary education system must also learn from the practical clinical training model followed in medical education. Medical students begin hospital visits and clinical rotations from the third year onward and continue intensive patient interaction until the final year, followed by a mandatory one-year house job. In total, medical graduates spend nearly four years continuously engaged with patients, hospitals, laboratories, and clinical departments before independent practice. This long and structured exposure gradually develops their clinical judgment, communication skills, and professional maturity.

In sharp contrast, veterinary students are left with only a four-month internship at the very end of their degree program. In practical terms, this is simply insufficient and does not meet the requirements of a serious clinical profession. A veterinary graduate responsible for animal health, livestock productivity, zoonotic disease control, food safety, and public health cannot be expected to perform effectively with such limited training.

To address the non-availability of clinical cases within institutions, the internship and clinical exposure system must be fundamentally restructured. Instead of restricting training to the final semester, structured clinical rotations should begin from the 8th semester onward. Students must be continuously engaged in real field environments through rotations in government veterinary hospitals, private clinics, livestock farms, dairy colonies, poultry units, experimental stations, diagnostic laboratories, and disease surveillance centers.

This gap can also be significantly reduced by initially adopting structured student exchange programs among veterinary faculties across Pakistan, particularly between institutions that possess stronger clinical infrastructure, better hospital facilities, and higher case loads. Such inter-institutional mobility will allow students from weaker or urban-based campuses to gain meaningful exposure in better-equipped settings. This initial arrangement will play a highly effective role in improving clinical competency, practical skills, and professional confidence before graduation.

This arrangement is also critically important for equipping veterinary students with a strong understanding of the modern “One Health” concept, which recognizes the interconnection between animal health, human health, and environmental health. Through structured field exposure, students can better understand zoonotic diseases, food safety systems, antimicrobial resistance, biosecurity challenges, and epidemiological investigations. Furthermore, this approach is essential to develop the “Day-One Competencies” defined by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), formerly OIE, ensuring that graduates are capable of performing safely, ethically, and independently from the very first day of their professional careers.

The veterinary education system must adopt a competency-based training model rather than a degree-oriented academic approach. Without adequate clinical exposure, veterinary graduates cannot meet international standards, nor can they effectively serve the livestock sector, which is a backbone of Pakistan’s rural economy and food security.

Serious professions require serious training. Veterinary education must no longer remain an exception. It is time to bridge the widening gap between academic qualification and professional competence before it leads to long-term damage to the credibility of the profession and the effectiveness of veterinary services in Pakistan.

Only through early, continuous, and structured clinical exposure can Pakistan produce veterinarians who are not just degree holders, but truly competent professionals ready to serve animals, farmers, and society. If this fundamental flaw in the training system continues unchecked, the country will keep producing graduates who carry impressive academic certificates but lack the basic confidence and competence required in real field conditions. Such a situation not only undermines the dignity of the profession but also directly compromises livestock productivity, disease control, food safety, and public health outcomes. The cost of this failure is ultimately borne by farmers, the livestock industry, and the national economy. It is therefore imperative that regulatory bodies, universities, and policymakers stop treating veterinary education as a routine academic exercise and instead enforce strict, outcome-based clinical training standards without further delay.

Dr. Alamdar Hussain Malik
Secretary/Registrar (Retired)
Pakistan Veterinary Medical Council
Former Financial Adviser, Finance Division, Government of Pakistan