Near East University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine was officially established on 2nd November 2009 as the first, private Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Cyprus. Prof. Dr. Omer Memduh ESENDAL retired from Ankara University Veterinary Faculty Department of Microbiology was appointed as the first dean and contributed greatly to the establishment of the faculty on strong fundaments. The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine started its educational offerings firstly in the English language, later in 2018-2019 expanded its capacity by adding a Turkish Programme. Since then the faculty successfully graduated 159 national and international students.
In 2019, Prof Dr Kürşad TURGUT was appointed as the second dean of faculty of veterinary medicine after his successful career and retirement in Konya Selçuk University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Internal Diseases. In a short span of time, Prof Dr Kürşad TURGUT leaded innovative scientific research and inspirational advances in the academic quality and education of our faculty. Building on this success our faculty continued to expand its offerings to the higher research degrees with its Master’s and Doctoral programmes. We strive to provide the highest standards both in veterinary education and academic research benchmarking the rules and regulations of the European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education (EAEVE) and the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE). Therefore, our next goal is to get the desired recognition of these authorizations to provide all our future graduates with accredited degrees.
The faculty facilities consist of a fully-equipped Small Animal Training Hospital, the Education Building as well as research farms for large animals.
There are nine lecture halls and three fully-equipped multidisciplinary laboratories including microscopy, anatomy and research labs. Both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes offer courses on Basic Veterinary Medical Sciences, Pre-clinical Sciences, Clinical Sciences, Animal Nutrition & Animal Breeding and Food Hygiene & Technology. Clinical applications and practice of our students regarding pet animal medicine are carried out in the Small Animal Training Hospital. In the Training Hospital, which is designed to provide ambulant and hospitalized patient services, there are three general and two special examination rooms namely; eye-dental-ear diseases and cardiology, a central diagnostic laboratory, and an imaging unit. In addition, there are two operation rooms, one for soft tissue and one for orthopaedic surgery, an intensive care unit and a hospitalization unit for post-operative and critical care. While our students are provided with all kinds of medical and surgical applications, the hospital offers pet animal health service to the public.
Clinical training on large animals are carried out at the “Havva Hanım Education, Application and Research Farm” in Şirinevler, where also practices on breeding in livestock such as cattle, sheep and goats are performed. At the “Equine Facility” of our faculty in Arapköy – Kyrenia, our students are doing horse medicine practices.
With the implementation of a student-centred and practice-oriented modern education system, it is aimed to provide our students with the opportunity of practising hands-on approach for an intellectually challenging and practically complex veterinary profession by interactive education. A wide range of activities such as emergency clinic, mobile clinic, internship, slaughterhouse studies, practical training in state laboratories and farm visits, which are an integral part of our curriculum, our students are aimed to get fully equipped with their education and experience before entering into the veterinary profession. Shifting away from only traditional Veterinary Medicine education, we aim to inspire and graduate ethically sound leaders that will act as exemplary members of the veterinary profession by striving for a sustainable environment and social impacts in society as well as continuing professional development. Together, we believe we can evaluate or eliminate the challenges of the pandemic process and distance learning. Use this as an opportunity to enhance the quality of education by online classes, flipped learning, art and creativity.
In our current and long-term goals, we would like to increase the international network and interdisciplinary research collaborations for impactful and futuristic projects. It is anticipated to start postgraduate training, which will also include specialist training on international quality standards. In the field of research, it is among our important goals to contribute to the scientific progress in our country and the world and to innovation by participating in large projects with international collaborations.
By reflecting this on to our colleagues working in the field with the mission of continuing professional education, it is aimed to transfer up-to-date knowledge to our local and international communities’ agriculture and animal welfare & husbandry as a prime emergency. For this purpose, in the near future, it is our priority to take and implement measures that will ensure that scientific studies are transformed into innovation to maximise the benefits whilst minimising the waste of resources, by making a conscious effort to ensure our research power is prioritised by responding to the emerging local and global issues.
Our vision is to deliver research to inform and innovate by providing the best environment, support and networks for our graduate and postgraduate research students to deliver outward-looking research focused on meeting the needs of society.
If you too value learning, happiness and life we would like to have you on board.