The Evaluation System

Brief Summaries of History, Concept and Function

Brief History

1986

The Evaluation System was conceived as a peer assessment programme and was started and financed (1985-1993) by the European Commission on the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Veterinary Training (ACVT). At the time, the legislation governing basic veterinary training in European Union Member Countries (Directives 8/1026 & 1027/EEC) laid down minimum compulsory requirements.

1985-89

A Pilot Study was made using visits to Utrecht, Cambridge, Liège, Hanover, Copenhagen, Dublin, Alfort, Milan, León, Thessaloniki and Lisbon as reference examples.

1992-2000

The ACVT decided to recommend that a permanent system be set up. This was done with the development of a detailed document on Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), but the European Commission, as a result of extreme budgetary constraints, asked the EAEVE to set up and run the system on a self-financing basis in 1994.

2000

The ACVT was disbanded by the European Commission and the Joint Education Committee of EAEVE and FVE (JEC) was formed. At the same time a revised SOP was introduced.

2003

A further change to the Standard Operating Procedures was agreed.

2005

New EU Legislation in the form of Directive 2005/36/EU repealed the original Directives and realigned the requirements for Veterinary Training.

2007-08

Completely reworked Standard Operating Procedures were agreed and the major change was the separation into Stage 1, where the evaluation  assesses whether an establishment conforms with Directive 2005/36 and, if so, recommends “Approval”  and Stage 2, where the    evaluation assesses that the establishment is following the generally accepted and appropriate academic standards and provides learning opportunities of acceptable quality, if so, recommends “Accreditation”.
The Joint Education Committee of EAEVE and FVE (JEC) was renamed the European Committee on Veterinary Education (ECOVE).

Concept

Briefly, the concept is one of an internal European professional peer evaluation system of veterinary educational establishments.

Function

The basic detailed procedures are set out in the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Main requirements for Stage 1 evaluation:

1. Preparation of Self Evaluation Report (SER), which takes approximately 1 year.
2. Examination of the SER is made by a team of experts in Basic subjects and sciences, Clinical Sciences subjects (Teacher), Clinical Sciences subjects (Practitioner), Animal Production, Food Hygiene and a Senior Student. Comments and queries are sent prior to the visit to the EAEVE Coordinator (Rapporteur), who accompanies the team on the visit. One experienced expert is named Chairperson.
3. Evaluation visit of the establishment by the team, usually taking 5 days, in which the queries raised from the SER can be resolved.
4. Generation of Draft Report, which is agreed by the complete team, which is presented to the Dean and colleagues for factual correction.
5. Final Draft Report is presented by the Chairperson to the ECOVE, which makes the decision on Approval, Conditional Approval or non-Approval. Approved establishments are entered onto the official list of Approved Establishments.
6. Final Report is sent to the establishment and the Executive Summary is published on the EAEVE Website.