The Hawkshead Campus is where veterinary medicine students are based for the final three years of their course, alongside veterinary nursing students and specialists-in-training.

The Hawkshead Campus is equipped with facilities tailored to deliver both the theoretical and practical elements of your course.

Let some of our students show you around... 

Academic facilities

The Hawkshead Campus in Hertfordshire houses facilities to deliver both the theoretical and practical elements of our courses. It is where our veterinary medicine students are based for their final three years, alongside student veterinary nurses, final year Animal Biology, Behaviour, Welfare and Ethics students and specialists-in-training.

The Hawkshead Campus has recently completed the largest and most ambitious single capital development the RVC has ever undertaken. Opened in 2023, our new Student Learning Centre provides new teaching laboratories, a library and a main lecture theatre, alongside informal social learning spaces. The campus also houses other modern lecture theatres and laboratories.

The redevelopment has significantly increased our research facilities, including the launch of the RVC Centre for Vaccinology and Regenerative Medicine. This is the latest specialist centre on campus, which already houses the Centre for Emerging and Endemic Diseases, Structure and Motion Laboratories, Clinical Skills Centre, and Clinical Investigations Centre.

Student facilities

Our 230-hectare self-contained Hawkshead Campus sits in the picturesque countryside of Hertfordshire. Our award-winning student village provides a home from home. Hawkshead Campus facilities include a restaurant, café, sports pitches and our Sports and Wellbeing Centre. The Buttery is our Students’ Union bar at Hawkshead, offering live sport and music.

Social Spaces

We have planted a series of mini meadows with dozens of native trees to enhance biodiversity and support to native birds and pollinators.

There is an abundance of communal space, where you can socialise and relax, as well as social learning spaces outside of the classrooms, labs and lecture theatres.

A new, double-height atrium, expanded café and garden room exhibition space provides social areas across the ground floor of the new Student Learning Centre.

Health and Wellbeing

The Sports and Wellbeing Centre (SAWC) at the Hawkshead Campus boasts impressive facilities for RVC staff and students. Our modern gym hosts a whole range of equipment including a nine-foot climbing wall, weight and cardiovascular machines, as well as a full range of dumbbells, kettle balls, power bags and much more.

Our dance and aerobics studio hosts most of our classes, including Zumba, Yoga and Pilates. The sports hall can host a multitude of sports, including badminton, indoor football, hockey, cricket, basketball, volleyball and many more. The SAWC is free to use and is open seven days a week.

Students living in Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire has some fantastic cycle and footpaths, allowing you to travel easily to neighbouring towns and villages, or to explore the countryside.

Getting in and around Potters Bar and the surrounding area is made simple by a number of public transport routes serving nearby bus and train stations. Potters Bar train station offers frequent trains to London King’s Cross. The RVC runs a free regular shuttle bus from Potters Bar train and bus station to the Hawkshead Campus.

What else?

Small animal referrals hospital – operates from the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals which is one of the largest and most advanced veterinary hospitals in the world, treating over 19,000 cases each year. Veterinary medicine and nursing students spend much of their clinical experience working here – meeting and treating patients and learning to carry out procedures – all supervised by expert senior vets and vet nurses.

Equine Hospital – our equine practice has a long and rich history in equine health management, combining world-leading research with the largest number of RCVS Equine Specialists of any UK veterinary teaching hospital, 24-hour emergency and referral services, and a first opinion equine-only ambulatory practice.

Boltons Park Farm – our farm animal teaching facility is located a short distance away from the main campus. The farm has 200 hectares of mainly grazing land, as well as 20 hectares of ancient mixed woodland.