The Student Room Group

Life as a BAME vet?

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(edited 2 years ago)
Ignore my questionable source (couldn't find the original farmers weekly article I read :wink:) but this does show there is still a length to go at in combatting discrimination:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/vet-sent-racist-letter-saying-13700864

However I would absolutely not allow this to put you off! and while it would be wrong to say such instances are non existent they are very rare - best of luck in your application :smile:
Those statistics are pretty shocking! Even taking into consideration that <5% of British people are BAME, 0.3% is a ridiculous underrepresentation. Hopefully this is improving since 2014. As VMD100 said, you are unlikely to encounter discrimination within the profession. I’d recommend watching Ibz Mo on the Cambridge front, he speaks a lot about diversity at the uni.
One of the main reason why high achieving ethnic minorities are under-represented in the industry is because of their background/culture, and how that shapes their career aspirations - not discrimination. Many ethnic cultures value careers in finance, engineering, medicine and law more highly than veterinary medicine, and that will significantly influence your upbringing and your propensity towards a certain career or industry.

My parents supported my aspirations from a very early age, because they highly valued the work of vets, and that shaped everything from what type of gifts they gave me, how they supported my studies, what sort of holidays we had, how much they pushed me, etc. Had I been born a different ethnicity or into a different culture it's a lot less likely that I would have been a vet!

You're far more likely to experience discrimination relating to age, gender or physical stature (in certain circumstances) than ethnicity. Saying that it's still relatively rare and most client are easy to convert once you have earned their trust. For example, I have experienced some clients talk derisorably about young or inexperienced vets (sometimes with good reason!) or smaller, female vets in a farm capacity given the physicality of the job (often disproved with a successful calving!).

Playing devil's advocate, another ethnic group that is significantly under-represented in veterinary medicine are white, working class males (an issue that gets a lot less publicity than other minority groups).
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by ch0c0h01ic
One of the main reason why high achieving ethnic minorities are under-represented in the industry is because of their background/culture, and how that shapes their career aspirations - not discrimination. Many ethnic cultures value careers in finance, engineering, medicine and law more highly than veterinary medicine, and that will significantly influence your upbringing and your propensity towards a certain career or industry.

My parents supported my aspirations from a very early age, because they highly valued the work of vets, and that shaped everything from what type of gifts they gave me, how they supported my studies, what sort of holidays we had, how much they pushed me, etc. Had I been born a different ethnicity or into a different culture it's a lot less likely that I would have been a vet!

You're far more likely to experience discrimination relating to age, gender or physical stature (in certain circumstances) than ethnicity. Saying that it's still relatively rare and most client are easy to convert once you have earned their trust. For example, I have experienced some clients talk derisorably about young or inexperienced vets (sometimes with good reason!) or smaller, female vets in a farm capacity given the physicality of the job (often disproved with a successful calving!).

Playing devil's advocate, another ethnic group that is significantly under-represented in veterinary medicine are white, working class males (an issue that gets a lot less publicity than other minority groups).

Spot on!

Some ethnic groups do not usually have pets, they consider animals to be dirty as I understand it, so they are unlikely to want to enter veterinary medicine.
Reply 5
Hi there I know it’s an old thread but I am a vet who graduated from Cambridge and I would like to support BAME prospective veterinary students in their journey to vet school. As a white woman, I have no direct experience of this sector for BAME individuals so the experiences of people like you matter enourmously. Please could you share your feelings and experiences with me? Even if you decided veterinary was not for you or you were unsuccessful (especially in that case) it would be really valuable to identify the obstacles BAME individuals face in the sector so we can try to break down some of those barriers.
Can't say much for universities, but there's this vet on tiktok who's very popular and he's black. I don't know if that helps in the sense of representation

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