The Sutton Trust Summer School is amongst the RVC’s most immersive residential programmes. This free to attend Summer School sees students live on RVC’S Hertfordshire Campus with all meals and equipment provided. Students, no matter their previous contact with animals, will have the opportunity to complete a variety of animal handling placements across a number of the RVC’s facilities that can contribute towards work experience requirements.  

This Summer School is designed to provide an authentic experience of what studying at the RVC is like with time spent at both campuses (London and Hertfordshire). The academic schedule will include lectures on a wide range of veterinary topics, conducting a research project, engaging in group-led teaching, learning practical clinical skills, and trying to solve a real-life veterinary case! To complement the teaching, learning will take place within a welcoming and inclusive environment alongside peers from similar backgrounds, all with aspirations to study Veterinary Medicine.

Students will be allocated a Student Ambassador as a mentor to support and guide their academic and professional development during the Summer School. Dedicated RVC professionals will provide comprehensive sessions around the application process with the aim of empowering students to fulfil their potential and join the RVC.

To support the comprehensive schedule there is a full social programme that facilitates the integration of Summer School students as well as providing an environment to develop skills, attributes and friendships. In past years this has included: sporting events, cooking together as a house and a quiz night.

This Summer School, funded by the RVC and the Sutton Trust, is a free to attend, 5-day residential course for fifty current Year 12 (England and Wales), Year 13 (Northern Ireland) or S5 (Scotland) pupils from under-represented backgrounds. All costs for the week, including the cost of travel, accommodation and food is covered by the Sutton Trust and the RVC.

To be eligible* to apply for this programme, students must attend a state school and meet a number of other Widening Participation eligibility criteria such as being the first in the family to go to university, being eligible for Free School Meals, or living in an area with low progression rates to higher education.

*The RVC is dedicated to being an organisation in which equity, diversity and inclusion underpin all that we do.   Eligibility for this event is targeted to support under-represented individuals, as we believe students from every background should be able to access advice, guidance and support in order to help them progress to and benefit from the transformative experience of higher education.   For more information on our commitment to improve equality of opportunity for under-represented groups please read our Access & Participation Plan (APP): www.rvc.ac.uk/study/rvc-is-open-for-all/access-and-participation

"I really enjoyed the clinical skills sessions and the placement days as they were especially informative. They were also enjoyable and very interactive"

"I particularly enjoyed the placement days as this was a really good introduction to animal handling which was great to learn about and gain some practical experience, it was also super interesting when the ambassadors spoke about animal health when teaching us how to do physical health checks. I also to my surprise enjoyed all the group activities such as sports as everyone was really nice and got along really well. Speaking to ambassadors on the veterinary medicine course was also good as this taught me a lot about the application process such as the importance of supplementary forms and what to expect in interviews."

"Thank you so much for this experience! It was such an eye opening and inspiring experience to have and I am truly thankful for all that you have done to help this stage in my life. I never thought this would be as amazing as it was, and I'm glad I have so much to take from the summer school"

"I thought the student ambassadors all were incredibly kind, welcoming and supportive and did an amazing job as well as being a bridge between a guide for the summer school and learning and also being a support system."

If you are a teacher, adviser or learner who is interested in finding out more about the RVC Sutton Trust Summer School, please contact us at schools@rvc.ac.uk.