What is the requirement for DN300?
Applicants must have at least 60 hours practical experience relevant to animal handling. This must include experience with at least two of the following four animal categories: Pets, Horses, Farm Animals, Wildlife/Zoos
The practical experience must have been undertaken in the last three years i.e. for 2025 entry between 1 February 2022 and 4 July 2025 and all details must be submitted by 4 July 2025 to be taken into consideration.
Here are some examples of the types of experience and whether they fit the criteria.
| Experience: | Acceptable | |
| Working at a riding school or mucking out stables and looking after the horses |  |
Counts as equine experience |
| Working at an animal rescue facility: walking and grooming dogs, cleaning kennels, feeding and grooming animals | |
Counts as pet experience |
| Working on a commercial farm: assisting the farmer with daily chores – milking cows, feeding stock, lambing ewes, etc. | |
Counts as farm animal experience |
| Working in a seal sanctuary | |
Counts as wildlife/zoo experience |
| Looking after my own pets |  |
Not acceptable - handling pets with which you are familiar is not sufficient experience. |
| Working on the farm I was brought up on | |
Not acceptable unless it can be verified by a supervisor who isn't a parent/guardian |
Why was this introduced?
This initiative is to encourage prospective applicants to learn about the profession before applying to the programme. It should increase applicant awareness of what the career entails and cement their determination to follow this path. The requirement for practical experience does not in any circumstance involve ranking of applicants.
I'm applying this year, what do I need to do?
1 |
Apply via CAO for DN300 no later than 1 May 2025 (or by change of mind up to 1 July). Applicants who are availing of the exceptional late CAO application date of 22 July cannot be considered for DN300 |
2 |
From early February, as we receive your application in UCD, we will email you a link to an online form where you can submit details of your work experience . Please note for applicants who make a late application, emails will not be sent until May. For those who entered DN300 using Change of Mind, emails will be sent within two weeks of applying until Change of Mind closes. If you have not received the email from us by 1 July please contact us as soon as possible. The onus is on the applicant to ensure they have received the link to upload their work experience before the 4 July deadline. For each practical experience undertaken you will need to provide the following information:
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3 |
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4 |
When your application is complete, submit it no later than 4 July 2025. You will not be eligible to compete for a place on DN300 Veterinary Medicine, unless full details of your practical experience are submitted by 4 July 2025 . The School of Veterinary Medicine carry out a verification process. |
I did the UCD Veterinary Medicine Summer School. Do I still have to complete the form?
Yes. You must complete the form and include the Summer School (you can upload your certificate of attendance). This counts as 5 hours experience.
When will I hear back from UCD?
It will not be possible for all submissions to be verified before CAO offers issue in August. When offers issue any relevant unverified submissions will be checked at that stage.
I'm hoping to apply next year or the year after, what do I need to do?
- You should start organising your practical experience
- For each experience complete the form and get it signed /stamped by the person responsible for supervising you.
- Keep your experience documents safely as you will need to upload them when you apply.
- The responsible person will be the owner or manager of the animal premises where you worked. UCD School of Veterinary Medicine will be contacting this person to verify the information you have provided.
- The work experience is not graded - it will be a simple pass or fail to meet the requirement
- In the year you are applying, follow the steps above.
Where can I get further information?
Please see our Frequently Asked Questions Page