The BVSc is typically a five-to-six-year professional degree, and SAVC (South African Veterinary Council) registration is required before you can practise. It is currently offered at only one South African university.
Apply early
Veterinary Science is one of the earliest-closing programmes in the country – at the one university that offers it, applications for this degree close before every other faculty there, often by the end of May. See the Dates page for the exact closing dates.
What does a Veterinarian actually do?
More about this career ▾
Diagnoses and treats animals – companion animals, livestock, wildlife and work animals – and because there’s only one South African university offering the BVSc, places are extremely limited and competition for them is intense. Many graduates go into private small-animal or large-animal practice; others move into state veterinary services, wildlife conservation, research or the livestock industry.
Where this degree can take you
Wildlife Veterinarian
Livestock/Large-Animal Vet
State Veterinarian
Veterinary Researcher
This is our general description of the role and related jobs, not from an official source – it’s here to give you a fuller picture, not as a careers-counselling guarantee.
Not from an official source
Specialising after the Veterinarian degree
10 specialties ▾
After the BVSc and SAVC registration as a veterinarian, the South African Veterinary Council (SAVC) also maintains a separate register of veterinary specialists. You reach it either through an MMedVet (a further postgraduate degree, offered only at the University of Pretoria, including a supervised residency of at least 3 years), or by peer review - at least a Master’s degree, 7+ years practising mostly in that field, and peer-reviewed publications - assessed by SAVC’s Committee on Specialisation.
Small animal
Veterinary Specialist Surgeon: Small Animals– MMedVet (3+ year residency) or peer review Surgery in companion animals.
Veterinary Specialist Physician: Small Animals– MMedVet (3+ year residency) or peer review Non-surgical medicine in companion animals.
Large animal & livestock
Veterinary Specialist Physician: Bovids / Small Stock– MMedVet (3+ year residency) or peer review Non-surgical medicine in cattle, sheep and goats.
Veterinary Specialist Practitioner: Pigs / Poultry– MMedVet (3+ year residency) or peer review Herd and flock health in commercial pig and poultry production.
Equine
Veterinary Surgeon / Specialist Physician: Horses– MMedVet (3+ year residency) or peer review Surgery and medicine in horses.
Wildlife & game
Veterinary Specialist Practitioner: Game– MMedVet (3+ year residency) or peer review Health and capture/immobilisation of wild and game animals.
Diagnostics & pathology
Veterinary Pathologist– MMedVet (3+ year residency) or peer review Diagnoses disease from tissue, blood and microbiology samples - several further sub-fields exist (e.g. clinical pathology, microbiology, parasitology).
Veterinary Radiologist– MMedVet (3+ year residency) or peer review Reads and interprets X-rays, ultrasound and other imaging in animals.
Other recognised fields
Veterinary Anaesthesiologist– MMedVet (3+ year residency) or peer review Keeps animals safely unconscious or pain-free during procedures.
Veterinary Public Health Specialist– MMedVet (3+ year residency) or peer review Animal-to-human disease risk, food safety and population-level animal health.
General overview, not from one single official source: SAVC confirms the MMedVet/peer-review specialist pathway on its own site, but this site could not load a single current, complete official list of every registered specialist category - the groupings and names above come from secondary sources describing SAVC’s specialist designations and may not be complete or perfectly named. Confirm the current full list directly with the SAVC before relying on it.
Not from an official source
Subjects that usually help
Mathematics
Physical Sciences
Life Sciences
This is our general guidance about which school subjects suit this career. It is not an admission requirement and not from an official source – the real requirements are on the degrees below.
•English: level 5 if it is your Home Language, level 5 if it is your First Additional Language
•Mathematics: level 5 (60% or more)
•Physical Sciences: level 5 (60% or more)
Confirmed against the user-supplied Veterinary Science 2027 Faculty Yearbook. The only BVSc offered by a South African public university. Closes 31 May - earlier than every other UP programme, including the rest of Health Sciences.