Nearly 1,000 Cambridge academics have signed a petition urging the University's leadership not to bypass its senior governing body over plans to discontinue its veterinary medicine course.

A total of 995 members of the 7,200-strong Regent House – Cambridge’s senior governing body comprising academics, senior researchers, college heads, and administrators – have backed the petition, making it the most signed in the University’s recent history.

Signatories are calling for formal safeguards to ensure that any proposal to cease admissions to a course must be put to a vote of the Regent House.

A second petition, signed by nearly 500 academics, specifically seeks to block the leadership from stopping admissions of the veterinary course without the approval of the Regent House.

The petitions were drafted after the Council of the School of the Biological Sciences voted in December 2025 to recommend the cessation of the vet course on the basis that “there was no viable long-term solution” for the “sustainable delivery of clinical services”.

It was recommended that the vet course close in 2032, and that those starting in October 2026 be the final year of admission.

The University’s General Board, which is responsible for the academic policy of the University, and chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, is set to vote on the recommendation on 23 February. The Board is comprised of only 15 members.

The initial petition says that the General Board’s “apparent intention” not to consult the Regent House over the termination of admissions for the vet course is “contrary to the spirit, if not the letter” of the current governing principles.

It further argues: “The Regent House should have an opportunity to express an opinion, especially since discontinuation of admissions has consequential implications for the future viability of the Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine and the staff employed in it.”

The petitions’ lead, Dr Stephen Cowley, told Varsity: “Cambridge is a bottom-up self-governing university. That the staff have a say in the running of the University generates collegiality, buy-in and often a willingness to go the extra mile.

"The unwillingness of the General Board to put the fate of the VetMB to a ballot of the Regent House is generating significant unease, and frustration with the leadership who do not seem to be listening.”

The head of Cambridge’s Vet School, Professor Mark Holmes, who signed both petitions, said he “strongly urged” other academics to sign “to show the strength of feeling on this matter in the Regent House”.

The second petition – which specifically calls for a Regent House vote on the terminating of the veterinary medicine course – was organised with “the aim of indicating to both the [Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons] and applicants for the VetMB course that any decision of the [General Board] on 23 February might be subsequently overturned”.

The signing of the petitions comes after applicants who applied to start the Cambridge veterinary medicine course in 2026 have been left in limbo with no offers yet made, despite being told that this admissions cycle would go “as planned”.

The justification for this decision has not been revealed, but 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.”

Last month, the head of the School of the Biological Sciences, who recommended the closure of the vet course, said that there were “significant challenges relating to the quality of educational provision,” as well as financial issues, with the Vet School “losing over £1 million a year for some time”.

Since the publishing of the recommendation, academics from the Vet School and other departments have questioned the evidence and process that was used to come to the recommendation.

The ‘Save The Vet School Campaign’ – started by members of the Cambridge Vet School – staged a protest in central Cambridge on Wednesday (18/01), urging members of the General Board not to vote to stop the course.

In an email sent to all student societies on Tuesday, veterinary student Lois Logan, urged other students to “please stand up for what’s right”.

The campaign claims to have received the support of over 20,000 people since it began in December. Supporters include Julian Norton, star of the Channel 5 docuseries The Yorkshire Vet, and the Conservative MP Neil Hudson, who studied veterinary medicine at Cambridge, as well as Liberal Democrat MP Danny Chambers, who was a veterinarian before becoming an MP.

The University of Cambridge was contacted for comment.