Crisis looming for pharmacy courses?
Declining numbers of applications to study pharmacy
at university mean that schools of pharmacy are having to reduce the standard
of A-level results they require applicants to achieve in order to fill
their places. One admissions tutor describes the situation as a crisis.
Most schools of pharmacy contacted by The Journal
on 21 August said that they were admitting students this year with lower
A-level points scores than in previous years to compensate for a 10 to
15 per cent drop in applications.
Speaking generally about the situation, Dr Peter
Elliott, admissions tutor for pharmacy at Liverpool John Moores University
said: “It is something that we really need to look at. It’s a crisis.
We could end up with people out there practising who are not of a high
calibre and who previously would not have got through.” He added: “If
we do nothing the situation will be worse next year. This year is not
a one-off.”
Professor Peter Redfern, head of the Bath pharmacy
school, said: “We, along with some of the better schools, have lost students
from the top. A lot of people we offered conditional places to did not
make the grade. We interview them all and if they only miss by a bit,
then we accept them. We don’t take anyone who will not survive the course.
Our standard offer is two As and a B [28 points] or an A and two Bs [26
points].”
Dr Kate Whittlesea, admissions tutor at the Cardiff
school of pharmacy, said that she had had to reduce the standard expected
of students from 26 points, although no-one had been admitted with fewer
than 24 points.
At De Montfort University, Leicester, admissions
grades have been reduced by two points, bringing them back down to where
they were three years ago, after standards had been increased. Course
leader Dr Andy Twitchell said: “So far as the course is concerned, we
will be keeping the same standard, so the risk is that fewer people will
get through. It is unfair to let people go through and then fail the preregistration
exam.”
One school of pharmacy which has had neither to
lower its entrance standard — 24 points — nor to seek students through
the clearing system is King’s College London. Admissions tutor Vernon
Dawes attributed this to large numbers of London-based ethnic minority
mature students who did not wish to leave the capital to study.
Overall, the crux of the problem is that fewer school
students are choosing science A-levels and the top-end science courses,
like pharmacy and medicine, are competing in a depleting pool of candidates.
“There are just not enough students doing science,”
said Mrs Peggy Stone, registrar at the School of Pharmacy, University
of London. “We all fish in the same pool. Applications are down in general.”
Dr Elliott’s favoured solution to the problem is
a campaign by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to teach the public what
community pharmacists do. Community pharmacists could offer work experience
to schoolchildren so that they see first-hand what pharmacy is about.
“The proportion of students who choose pharmacy
after work experience is spectacular,” he said. This was true for students
who took pharmacy-based work experience by chance, as well as for those
who were already considering pharmacy as a career.
Dr Alan Nathan, chairman of the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society’s Education Committee said: “We have been aware that there has
been an overall decline in applications. The problem is not specific to
pharmacy: it’s the same for all the health professions. It’s down to the
fact that students and their parents are weighing up the financial implications
of courses and looking for a return on their investment. Students are
going to information technology courses and business studies because they
see that that is where the money is.” Dr Nathan added that the Society’s
careers targeting had not been very good in previous years. “We need to
target the fourth and fifth years at secondary schools and careers teachers
more,” he said.
Correction
This report incorrectly described Mr Alan Nathan as Dr Alan Nathan. |
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