No offers have yet been given to applicants for the 2026 Cambridge Veterinary Medicine course, despite the School of Biological Sciences (SBS) recommendation in December that this admissions cycle go “as planned”.

Instead of receiving offers, applicants still under consideration were sent a short email on the day that they expected to hear whether they had been successful (28/01).

The email said: “Your application is still under active consideration. We will ensure that we issue you with a final decision on your application as soon as possible. There is nothing further you need to do for now.”

The sending of this holding text was recommended by the Colleges’ Standing Committee, an intercollegiate committee composed of several senior College members as well as senior central University members, including the director of undergraduate admissions.

The business of the Committee is confidential. Varsity has asked why the Committee came to its recommendation, but has not been given an answer.

One applicant who received the holding email told Varsity that they were “surprised” by it, adding: “I did assume we would receive a decision considering they told us in December that they would be taking on the 2026 cohort, despite the possibility of the vet course closing.”

They continued: “I feel as though if the University knew they wouldn’t be able to give us a clear decision about applications on the 28th, they could’ve maybe communicated this to us prior, as then there would be less shock and confusion about the whole situation.”

A spokesperson for the University said: “We understand that the current situation may feel uncertain for applicants still under active consideration, and we appreciate their patience. There is no further action required from them at this time. We will provide further updates as soon as we are able to.”

In December 2025, the SBS voted 11 to zero to recommend ceasing the course, with two abstentions, on the basis that “there was no viable long-term solution” for the “sustainable delivery of clinical services”. However, they told all applicants and current students that they also recommended “the admissions process for October 2026 entry proceeds as planned”.

Varsity understands that many senior College members, particularly admissions tutors, have been kept largely uninformed over the rationale behind the Committee’s recommendation. College admissions tutors were also given no prior notice when the SBS emailed vet applicants directly during this year’s interview season about their recommendation.

Prof Mark Holmes, the head of the Veterinary Medicine Department, told Varsity that he too has heard “almost nothing” about the decision to delay making any offers for the 2026 cohort.

He added that “the University are doing everything they can to stop the course without going to Regent House” – which is the governing body of the University – because “they know that they won’t have the votes to close the course”. Holmes described such moves as “undemocratic and uncollegiate”.

He also said: “We will not take this lying down, and we will do this, not just to protect the Vet School, but to protect our colleagues across the University, because who are they coming for next?”

Responding to the Standing Committee’s recommendation, Rudi Bruijn-Yard, co-President of the University Veterinary Society, told Varsity: “Preventing the immediate acceptance of students onto the course stems the lifeblood of the department which relies on an annual stream of applicants to accommodate costs and graduate vets and damages the likelihood that offer holders will choose to study here.”

He added: “The news is circulating at the moment amongst the students and is particularly disheartening for the younger years who fear how their education may now be affected as the previous SBS council agreement guaranteed a 2026 cohort of vet students, and yet the University now appears to be preparing for an eventuality that might exclude even those that have undergone the current application cycle from attending.”

The Colleges’ Standing Committee’s recommendation comes after University members attended a discussion on 13 January chaired by the deputy vice-chancellor to express their concerns with the conduct of the School of Biological Sciences (SBS) and their recommendation to stop the veterinary medicine course.

Contributions in the discussion came from heads of departments, senior tutors, Vet School academics, as well as vet students. Most of the contributions urged the General Board not to accept the recommendation, and criticised the SBS’s conduct in delivering news of it.

There was also a Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons council meeting last month where the President said that the Vet Schools Council was “receiving quite a lot of questions from students who are currently in the mix, around whether they should or shouldn’t continue [at Cambridge]”.

He added: “I think it’s quite difficult for us to advise in any way as to what the likely outcome is for any students applying this year.”

The University’s General Board is expected to make a decision about the SBS’s recommendation to stop the Veterinary Medicine course at the end of this month.