St. George's veterinary school earns full accreditation from AVMA Council on Education

Grenada, West Indies

— St. George’s University (SGU) School of Veterinary Medicine has been granted full accreditation by the American Veterinary Medical Association’s (AVMA) Council on Education (COE).

COE made the decision at its Sept. 18-20 meeting, stating the accreditation would be retroactive to the date of the Council’s site visit, meaning all the students who graduated from St. George’s after April 21 will now be considered graduates of a COE-accredited institution.

Full accreditation means SGU students may now qualify for licensure anywhere in the United States or Canada without first having to complete a foreign graduate examination, says AVMA. The pass rate for SGU students taking the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination in 2010 was 96 percent, the association says.

About 500 veterinary students are currently enrolled at SGU, with 85 percent from the United States.

Founded in 1999, SGU submitted a self-study report to COE in 2006, and the Council paid the school its first consultative site visit in February 2007. A comprehensive site visit tool place April 17-21, 2011.

The decision by COE to grant SGU full accreditation makes the school the second in the Caribbean to earn the designation after Ross University’s veterinary school earned full accreditation by COE in spring 2011.