Vet nursing course is saved after axe threat

The move, by Telford College, had been widely criticised by staff and students at the Edinburgh institution.

But the veterinary nursing course is now to be saved through a partnership with local vets and a change in teaching.

Local vet practices will subsidise student placements and the taught part of the course will be reduced to a form of independent learning to reduce costs.

The course, offered at the Edinburgh college for 20 years, was one of a number of popular classes under threat after the government's decision to cut the further education sector's budget by a devastating 10.4 per cent earlier this year.

Miles Dibsdall, Telford principal, said: "Cutting courses was something which we never planned or wanted to do."