Students attend their first academic ceremony - matriculation
On Friday, 13 October 2023, the first year students of all study programmes of the University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice attended their first academic ceremony - matriculation. The matriculation certificates from the hands of the Vice-Rector for Education Martin Tomko were received by 549 students in the study programmes of general veterinary medicine in Slovak and English, food hygiene, pharmacy, cynology, feed and food safety, human-animal relationship and its use in canister therapy and hippotherapy, veterinary nursing, animal welfare and protection.
"The matriculation ceremony is not only a confirmation of your inclusion in our academic community. With this historic act, you assume all the rights and responsibilities of a college student. The right to demand a highly professional and stimulating environment and the obligation to do everything in your power to acquire all the required knowledge, skills and habits. Both the right and the obligation to use your years of study to become recognised experts in your profession, all the more so because your profession will be associated with living beings. Whether they are animals or people, responsibility for health cannot wait until you have earned your graduate diploma. It is necessary to learn this responsibility from the first days of study, a study that is not easy, but irreplaceable and certainly interesting," said Jozef Nagy, Rector of UVLF, in his speech. The students were also addressed by the chairman of the Academic Senate of the UVMP Slavomír Marcinčák and the chairman Chamber of Students of the Academic Senate of the UVMP Adam Körosi.
Among the new first-year students, the largest number of students is in the study programme General veterinary medicine - 136 students, General Veterinary Medicine in English - 118 students, Pharmacy (79), Cynology (76), Veterinary nurse (54), Animal welfare and protection (30), Food hygiene (22 students), Man-animal relationship and its use in canistherapy and hippotherapy (19 students), Safety of feeds and foodstuffs (15). To the newly recruited young people we can also add the 43 students who have started the first year of the joint animal science programme at the partner Nord University in Bodø, Norway. The newly recruited international students come mainly from France, Greece, India, Malta, Cyprus, Israel, Norway, Iceland, Turkey, Belgium, China, Finland, Canada, Kenya, Germany, Poland, UK, Seychelles and Sweden.
Matriculation is the ceremony at which a student is entered into the university registry. It involves taking the matriculation oath, in which he or she undertakes to fulfil his or her duties as a student, to respect the decisions of the Academic Senate and to make moral commitments to the University so that his or her activities will be of all-round benefit.
"We, the students of the University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice, do solemnly swear that our conduct will not infringe upon any legal or moral norms and that we will represent our university in an honourable manner in all social activities. We are aware that good reputation, respect and authority of the university, to which we have been accepted to study, rests with each one of us. We accept that we will have to master numerous difficulties until our graduation. We acknowledge that before the commencement of our professional career, as graduates we will take another oath. If we are to fulfil the responsibilities of the veterinary profession, we must start preparing from today. With this matriculation oath we take the first step towards this final goal."