Students due to go to Liverpool John Moores university to commence studies in pharmacy this September will be alarmed at the news that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has yet to accredit their course (see p218). That is a perfectly understandable reaction. Who wants to embark on what is a critical phase of professional education when a major question mark hangs over it?
But, from our reading of the situation, the matter is not beyond redemption. A meeting is due to take place between the Society and the university in Liverpool next week which could help to set matters on the path to resolution. Since, we hear, the university's vice-chancellor expects to achieve accreditation and since it is the university that will have to change its position, a positive outcome seems likely.
It might be thought that the Society should have desisted from making the matter public until negotiations had reached a total impasse. But for the Society to have kept quiet would, in our view, have been inappropriate. Students are entitled to know that they are about to commence a course that has not yet been accredited and that they might face additional examinations as a result.
Students are now able to assess their various options with a proper degree of knowledge. Admittedly, many will find it difficult if not impossible to make a switch at this stage. There are probably not the places available at other schools, even if they wanted to. But at least they know where they stand.
For the students already at Liverpool, there is no cause for alarm. They are on accredited courses and that accreditation remains in place.
The Society's overriding concern, of course, is for the public. That is why it has been given the job of approving courses and thereby providing for quality assuring pharmacy education. That is why it is making a stand over the Liverpool course. It is not yet satisfied that all the elements are in place to produce pharmacists of the right calibre, in the interest of the public. The Society has never had need to make this kind of announcement before and perhaps the university thought that it would not do so on this occasion. If this is the case, then it has misjudged the situation.
Liverpool school of pharmacy is the second oldest in Britain. It celebrated its sesquicentenary in some style last year (PJ, July 3, 1999, p6). It should not be allowed to go into decline. The university authorities must ensure that that does not happen.