Ministry regulations on specialization training in veterinary medicine in Türkiye

Abstract

The first practices associated with specialization training in veterinary medicine in Türkiye were initiated in the field of military veterinary medicine in the 1880s. The first civilian veterinarians were sent abroad for specialization training in 1909. In the Republican era, specialization training in civil veterinary medicine was carried out in a planned and programmed system by the seven basic regulations issued by the Ministry of Agriculture from 1942 to the 1980s. In 1982, all graduate studies in the field of health sciences were included in graduate schools of health sciences, meanwhile, the Specialization High School, the main institution that trains specialists for civil veterinary services, was closed, thus specialization education in this field was terminated. In the following years, the legal regulations prepared for specialization training in civil veterinary medicine could not be put into effect, thus specialists could not be trained for about 40 years. In 2018, a new regulation was put into effect for specialization training in civil veterinary medicine. However, despite the end of the three-year transition period, the shortage of specialists in the field still continues, since education has not yet started. On the other hand, some details in the new regulation do not fully coincide with international practices. There is no doubt that specialization training in veterinary medicine in Türkiye should be carried out in line with national requirements; but it should also be of universal standards.