Factors affecting the number of applicants for the veterinary public health internship programs (VPcamp programs)

During fiscal years 2014–2018, a total of 254 internship programs were held by local government organizations under the VPcamp project, a project sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. We conducted a Poisson regression analysis using the number of applicants for each program as dependent variable and potential factors as independent variables that might affect the number of applicants. The factors that were found to significantly affect the number of applicants were: the program opening date; the type of venue where the program took place; the target grades of veterinary students; the regional location of the local government that organized the program; and the proximity of the local government from a veterinary school.