NIFA Publishes Report on Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program

"Food animal veterinarians who care for and safeguard the health of livestock, poultry and aquatic animals, ensuring their welfare as well as food safety, security and quality, are critical for the sustainability of the U.S. food system," said Dr. Kathe Bjork, NIFA national program leader. "One of the most significant challenges identified for entering the profession and being successful as a food animal veterinarian is the cost of veterinary medical education and the resulting pressures of repaying student debt, especially considering the differences in compensation between food animal and companion animal veterinary practice types."

In 2003, the U.S. Congress authorized the establishment of VMLRP to respond to the challenges with recruitment and retention of food animal veterinarians as well as rising veterinary educational debt. The first awards were made in 2011, and by 2023, annual funding reached $10 million.

As one part of its programmatic support for VMLRP stakeholders, the program has produced a summary of its activities and accomplishments and the challenges facing the profession in the VMLRP Program Summary 2010-2022. This report provides an overview of the VMLRP and summarizes trends and activities of the program to respond to the needs of animal health officials, food animal veterinarians, food and fiber animal producers and interested stakeholders, and includes program highlights and accomplishments.

In addition, the report summarizes the amount of debt undertaken by awardees and the evidence of the increase in student loan debt among awardees documented over the program period.

NIFA allocates the numbers of shortage areas to states, insular areas and federal jurisdictions based on agricultural census data, and animal health officials have used those allocations to nominate specific shortage areas. The number of shortage areas nominated by animal health officials was lowest in 2015 (186) but increased to 226 by 2022. The largest numbers of shortage areas were nominated in the midwestern and western U.S. and in Georgia, and the species identified as having the greatest need has been beef cattle.

Over the period 2010-2022, the VMLRP received 2,061 applications from food animal veterinarians and entered into service agreements with 795 awardees. Demographics of applicants and awardees have changed over time with an increasing proportion of female applicants and awardees.

The self-reported gender of applicants over the 13-year period shows that females outnumbered males in nearly every year. Of the 1,957 applicants who self-reported their gender, 58% were female. In only one year, 2012, did males exceed females with 55% of applicants, and by 2022, males comprised only 24% of those applicants who reported gender information.

The VMLRP award amount has remained the same since the program's inception, $25,000 per year for a three-year service agreement. Awardees may apply for a renewal award at the end of their three-year period if they have remaining veterinary educational debt. In 2010, the first year applications were accepted, females comprised 42% of awardees. In 2017 and most recent years, this percentage increased and in 2022, 75% of awardees were female.

Although the award amount has remained the same, veterinary educational debt of awardees has not. The average amount of debt in 2011, $109,000, rose to $147,000 in 2022, an increase of 35%. Female awardees tended to have higher debt than males. The mean debt for female applicants in 2015-2022 was $145,245 and for males, $120,713. The median debt for females and males was $128,451 and $111,531, respectively.

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