| There are many issues facing decision makers in veterinary medical education regarding the number of graduates needed and the focus of their training. One source of input for addressing these issues is the evaluation by graduates of their veterinary training programs. At the request of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University, the Office of Institutional Research conducted a survey of the graduates of that college. The study was designed to describe the professional employment of graduates and the opinion of those graduates regarding the Michigan State University program leading to the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) degree.;A questionnaire was designed and mailed to D.V.M. graduates of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University who were graduated during the years 1913 to 1976 inclusive. This survey instrument consisted of eight parts, four of which were used in this study of the training and employment patterns of graduates. Responses to the questionnaire items were reported and analyzed by means of tabulation of frequency distributions, calculation of chi-square tests of independence, and Kendall's Tau tests of rank correlation. Two hundred sixty-nine (269) individual null hypotheses were tested in an attempt to address the five objectives of the study and to analyze the population data. One hundred eighty-five (185) of these hypotheses were rejected at the .05 level of significance.;The major findings of the study were: (1) Graduates, particularly women and later graduates, reported employment in small and mixed animal practices or other types of practices. (2) The type of preveterinary experience reported tended to have an influence on the type of practice later chosen by graduates. (3) Graduates working in government, industry, and military reported less satisfied career objectives than those in private practice or education. (4) Graduates recommended four years as the optimal length for veterinary professional programs and most often cited the additional time for practical application as a major advantage of the longer program. (5) Graduates recommended increased opportunity for optional specialization in the veterinary program. (6) Additional emphasis on the curricular areas of economics and business administration, personnel management, animal behavior, clinical pathology, and nutrition for small animals was recommended by graduates. (7) A major trend identified by graduates was an increase in work with food animals.;Specifically, this study sought to identify: (1) the career employment patterns of graduates since receipt of the D.V.M. degree, (2) the employment patterns of graduates with selected preveterinary factors, (3) the optimal length of veterinary programs as perceived by graduates, (4) the optimal emphasis on the curricular areas included in the professional program as perceived by graduates, and (5) the trends in the veterinary medical profession which relate to the veterinary medical curriculum as perceived by graduates. |
