News

On Monday, February 7, 2022, teaching began at the University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice in the spring semester of the academic year 2021/22. Due to the deteriorating pandemic situation in connection with the onset of the coronavirus variant omicron and to ensure the protection of the health of students and staff, not all students started regular classes.

The university management decided that teaching began in full-time form only for students of the last 6 years of the study programs of general veterinary medicine in Slovak and English and food hygiene, who have planned block teaching. For all other students in all study programs, teaching will take place in the period from 7 to 18 February 2022 online through available resources (MS Teams, Moodle) according to the set schedule. If the situation improves, the university is immediately ready to go on full-time teaching in all grades and study programs. Students will be informed about the change in time. UVLF training takes place in OTP mode.

The beginning of the summer semester is accompanied by fears for the future. The University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice is one of the universities that are most affected by the reduction of the state subsidy. It will receive 2.2 million euros less from the state this year. The total decrease in the state subsidy for all 22 public universities in Slovakia is 43 million euros.

"We are an internationally accredited university, which ranks us among the best European veterinary universities in terms of quality, but the current Slovak assessment system does not take this into account. UVMP is the only one of its kind in our country, it enjoys the constant and non-declining interest of applicants from Slovakia and abroad, nevertheless, after more than 70 years of existence, it must fight for survival," says UVMP Rector Jana Mojžišová.

"Operation with us is financially demanding. We have live animals that require 24-hour care. Without live animals, veterinary education is hard to imagine. We try to reduce costs, but everything has its limits. Although we are a smaller university, we are a unique, only and socially irreplaceable school with national significance. It is very difficult to cope with the fact that the reduction in our subsidy is so significant," adds the rector. All universities are asking the Ministry of Finance to increase their budgets.

"The university saves wherever it can. Reduces wage costs, reduces energy consumption. It has received funding from the European Union to reduce the energy intensity of buildings on the university campus. However, the current increase in energy prices will be felt significantly. The amount of money he can use for investment projects will be reduced. This will slow down the university's development," adds Róbert Schréter, the university's bursar.

Despite the funding problem, the university will not change the content of education. The University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice does everything in its power to maintain the scope and level of education. In the academic year 2021/22, more than two thousand students study at UVLF, of which more than one fifth are in English, in the study programs general veterinary medicine, pharmacy, food hygiene, cynology, man-animal relationship and its use in canistherapy and hippotherapy, safety of feeds and foodstuffs, market and quality of foodstuffs,