6. Future perspectives
After finishing their Bachelor in Veterinary Medicine, students do not possess a Bachelor degree that allows much opportunity to pursue another Master program than a veterinary one. Conversely, it is almost impossible for students from other faculties to enroll in a veterinary Master program if these are mainly focused on delivering practitioners. Currently, there is an ongoing discussion regarding a “Life Sciences Bachelor” degree. In this context, veterinary and (bio)medical students should follow largely the same or a similar program. In such a program, integration of the (bio)medical and veterinary disciplines could either lead to a further loss of the identity of or to an emphasis on the basics of parasitology in which veterinary examples (epidemiology, host-parasite interaction, control programs) could be used. It would also have major consequences for the veterinary Masters as it probably would need a much stronger involvement of veterinary parasitologists than currently is the case. With such a major change in the curriculum, the improvement and development of current and new teaching materials must aim for a flexible format to make it possible to also teach VP in a “Life Sciences Bachelor” in different faculties. This again might challenge the ability and willingness of teachers to adapt once more to a new curriculum.
Finally, the development of digital teaching materials in any form might benefit from cooperation between veterinary faculties or parasitologists across a continent or even globally. It would, therefore, greatly help if there was an international platform, where newly developed materials were posted for feedback or use by others.
