Indiana’s Hanover College suspends effort to open veterinary school

Hanover College’s ambitious plan to launch a veterinary school in Indiana that combined remote and in-person instruction has been paused due to new accreditation rules limiting distance education in veterinary programs. The initiative, first announced in late 2023, would have been the first veterinary school in the U.S. to implement a hybrid learning model.

At the time of the announcement, the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education (AVMA COE)—the only veterinary school accreditor recognized by the U.S. Department of Education—had no policies governing remote instruction. That changed in 2025 when the COE received federal authorization to include distance learning in its scope and updated its standards. Under the new rules, programs must remain “predominantly residential,” with at least 85% of preclinical coursework and 50% of direct instruction in any given course delivered in person.

Peter Ashley, Hanover’s vice president for enrollment and marketing, told the VIN News Service that the restrictions made it impossible to move forward under the original hybrid plan. “The issue is 100% the standards are too restrictive,” he said. The college’s board of trustees voted in October to suspend development of the program, though Ashley emphasized that the school hopes to revive it if accreditation standards evolve to allow more flexibility.