Plans by the Department of Veterinary Medicine to relocate the Veterinary Library have been widely criticised for not involving students in the decision making process.

Students have said the Faculty Library, located on Madingley Road opposite West Hub, has been cleared out. This has left clinical vet med students “who are there all crazy hours during [the] final couple of years” with no study space with no notice or consultation in advance.

A statement to Varsity from a University spokesperson stated that the “Vet School staff and students are discussing a proposal to relocate the Vet School Library to the nearby West Hub” and that the library is “operational as usual”.

The move has prompted an outcry from students, with posts on online forums such as Camfess condemning plans to “get rid of the library”. One user commented that “the point is that there were no emails” from the Department of Veterinary Medicine.

One student told Varsity that the department is “already underway with renovating it and turning it into teaching spaces, which leaves no quiet study space in the clinical vet school. There was no student input - students were only told after asking what was happening to it.”

They continued: “I feel as though [students in] every department should be entitled to a quiet space to study - that’s been taken away from the vets without student input. There was no acknowledgement of what vet students actually want.”

Another second-year student told Varsity that a “sporadic timetable” and long hours make having an accessible study space even more important. They stressed that the location of the department in West Cambridge means they “don’t have easy access to the many libraries available in the town centre” ⁠— and that their degree is “demanding enough” without this added stress.

Several Vet Med students have launched petitions “to pressure the department more” since they discovered the department’s plans to repurpose the library. Cambridge University Veterinary Society are having consultations with students and staff to resolve the issue.

Cambridge University Veterinary Society was approached for comment.