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Letters to the Editor
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Overseas registration
Judgements based on inexperience?
From Ms M. L. Stone
In the article about registration of overseas pharmacists (PJ, 18 October,
p563), Linda Stone is quoted as saying that PharmDs appear to be taught
at bachelor level. This simply is not true. A PharmD course is four years
in duration and entry is only possible after completing a minimum of
two years at an American college, though most students enter with three
years of college credit or a bachelor’s degree. This makes the
PharmD a minimum of six years at higher education level. Even considering
that the first year of American college is really equivalent to “A”-levels,
that leaves five years, which is equivalent to the MPharm plus one year
of preregistration training.
In addition, my experience of the National Academic Recognition Information
Centre for the United Kingdom (UK NARIC) is poor. One of the UK Research
Councils also used UK NARIC, which advised it in one case that a student
with a Danish master’s degree in pharmacy was not eligible to undertake
a PhD studentship since the student did not have a bachelor’s degree.
I argued to UK NARIC that the bachelor’s degree was encompassed
within the master’s degree but UK NARIC would not budge. However,
the Research Council finally saw sense and overruled UK NARIC.
I would question the level of knowledge and expertise of UK NARIC staff
vis-à-vis professional degrees such as those in pharmacy. The
person I dealt with at UK NARIC was junior and too inexperienced to be
making pronouncements on the eligibility of Danish pharmacy students
to do PhDs.
I hope that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society will seriously examine its
procedures about equating overseas qualifications, because it seems to
me that it is making judgements based on ignorance and inexperience.
In a time of chronic pharmacist shortages, the Society’s attitude
seems to be born of protectionism and not in the best interests of the
public.
Margaret L Stone
Registrar, School of Pharmacy, University of London
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KAREN MARSHALL, services manager, UK
NARIC, replies:
UK NARIC
is responsible for comparing academic levels based on learning
outcomes
and skills. Unfortunately this letter is based on a common misconception
that equivalence is based solely on duration of a course, whereas
in actual fact a number of factors must be considered. With regard
to a PharmD from the United States, it is important to emphasise
that the statements made in the letter are misleading. In the US,
many professions are trained via a professional second degree, that
is to say that a prior higher education qualification is required
before the professional training element — but the academic
level of the degree remains at first degree level.
With regard to Danish qualifications, again there appears to be a
misunderstanding as our information clearly does not state that holders
of the master’s
degree cannot study at PhD level in the United Kingdom. LINDA STONE, chairman, Adjudicating Committee, Royal Pharmaceutical
Society, adds:
While ensuring that its decisions are consistent,
transparent and robust,
the Adjudicating Committee’s prime concern is public and patient safety.
Entrants to the Register via the adjudicating route are required to demonstrate
comparable critical skills and abilities as graduates from UK universities
who now achieve a master’s level MPharm. Decisions taken by the committee
must be objective, based on all available evidence.
UK NARIC is just one of several factors considered by the Adjudicating Committee
and its limitations are appreciated.
The issue of the US PharmD is interesting. Length of study does not necessarily
correlate to level of attainment. Although the PharmD might be equivalent
to a UK doctorate in terms of years of study (six), in some cases it appears
to
be taught only at bachelor level. The graduate of such a bachelor level programme
will not achieve the same skills as a UK MPharm graduate. |
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