TDK conference 2024

The goal of our study was to uncover the main motivational factors of those who chose veterinary medicine as a career amongst both Hungarian first year veterinary students and interested high schoolers. Most students enrolled in UVMB came from the central regions of Hungary (50.0%) most students from the countryside came from Győr-Moson-Sopron county (6.1%). Feminization of the profession is apparent as almost 80% of the first year students and high schoolers are female. Since 2022 more and more students enrolled in self-founded courses (11.4% as opposed to 1%). When choosing UVMB the most important factors were the following: there is no other veterinary medicine course in Hungary (4.4), valuable diploma on the job market (3.9), colourful student life (3.8) and practice oriented studies (3.6).

The profession is most appealing to those who love animals and want to cure them, but a thirst for knowledge and job opportunities are also commonly mentioned as important factors. High schoolers valued extrinsic motivational factors more and intrinsic ones less than first year students did. In case of women, the motivational patterns of those who are interested and those who are actually admitted to the university are very similar, whereas amongst men they differ substantially. This means that in the latter case most of those students who were interested in high school do not enrol at the end.

The choice of area of expertise is affected by personal experiences, and the animals kept throughout childhood. Keeping small animals and therefore small animal practice was the most popular. Equine and farm animal practices were the most popular amongst people who had contact with these animals as a child. So, if the goal is to have more people enrol who are for example interested in a farm animal practice, we should focus from an early age, on helping students who have a strong connection to these animals (i.e. elementary and high school programmes bridging the gap between agricultural vocational schools and the university). Also, we should consider creating other programmes where elementary and high school students can get acquainted with the many areas of expertise the veterinary profession can offer.