Will the bucket overflow? Maintaining WIL capacity in the face of increasing student numbers.

As employer expectations of practice-ready graduates increase and student numbers in highereducation institutions grow, competition for work integrated learning (WIL) placements is becoming moreintense. Accreditation bodies require veterinary schools to provide WIL opportunities for all students in bothuniversity-operated teaching hospitals and in external veterinary workplaces. With veterinary undergraduatestudent numbers increasing significantly in recent years, the sustainability of the current model of WIL has been amatter of vigorous debate, but there is a dearth of scholarly literature to inform such a debate. This paper reports ona survey of 300 veterinary employers purposively selected from a university database, with questions exploringmotivations and barriers to their involvement in undergrad WIL and their perceptions on appropriate remunerationfor their educational role. Survey findings suggest that despite the increasing numbers of veterinary students, themajority of veterinary employers were satisfied with their current student numbers, level of (usually non-financial)reward, and cited a desire to 'put back to the profession' as a significant driver for their involvement in WIL. Byimplication, capacity for WIL placements is not an inherent threat to sustainability of current models; instead ofbeing an absolute value, capacity can be built or diminished. Universities would do well to invest in sustainingaltruistic motivation and mutually beneficial relationships with their external partners.