Using AVA CVP Post Nominals
Post nominals are letters placed after a person’s name to indicate education qualifications, tittle of office, and honours. Post nominals can be used on items such as business cards and resumes in line with the following guidelines.
Guidelines for use of Postnominals
1. Postnominals include abbreviations of an award or awarding institution.
2. Postnominals should be listed in the following order:
- National Honours, such as the Order of Australia (AO, AM, AC).
- Academic qualifications from lowest to highest, except qualifications awarded by the same institution which are listed together.
- Where another university is the awarding institution, include the abbreviation of that institution’s name (in brackets) after the abbreviation of the award. In some instances the name of an awarding institution may not have an abbreviation, so the name should be used in full.
- Memberships by examination, e.g., MRCVS
- Memberships and Fellowships of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists (ANZCVS)
- Specialist qualifications from the American or European Boards of Veterinary Specialties (Diplomates) e.g., DipACVS, DipECVIM
3. Abbreviations
- The appropriate postnominal for an Australian Veterinary Association Chartered Veterinary Practitioner™ is AVACVP(Discipline).
- Academic awards may be cited either in full or in shortened form, but not in a mixture of both forms.
- Postnominals should not include full stops, but should include commas to separate the different types of award or membership, and to separate academic awards from different institutions.
- The name of the awarding institution is shown following the listing of the last qualification awarded by that institution.
4. An example of postnominal use is as follows:
John Citizen AM, DVM(UMelb), AVACVP(Small Animal)
The postnominals indicate that John Citizen is a Member in the General Order of Australia, received a DVM from the University of Melbourne, and is an AVA Chartered Veterinary Practitioner™ in Small Animals.
Jane Citizen BVSc(UQ), MANZCVS (Small Animal Medicine), AVACVP(Small Animal)
The postnominals indicate that Jane Citizen, received a BVSc from the University of Queensland, has passed Membership of the College in Small Animal Medicine, and is an AVA Chartered Veterinary Practitioner™ in Small Animals.
5. For further information, please also refer to the AVA Appropriate use of post-nominal policy.
AVA acknowledges the Oxford University Calendar: Notes on Style (2015)