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Top-up fees
Modernisation
The Profession
Packaging
Letters to the Editor
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Top-up fees
Let us consider scholarships for undergraduates
From Mr I. M. Caldwell, FRPharmS
I am one of that happy band which, in the 1950s, did not pay tuition
fees. I even got a grant of £110 per annum, the maximum at the
time, to meet my living and travelling expenses and pay for books, etc.
We lived at home, had pie and beans for lunch, a pint of lager constituted
an end of examinations celebration, we worked every holiday there was
and three of us sometimes clubbed together to buy five Woodbine — I
know three into five does not go but let us not go into sordid details.
The rest of the United Kingdom is about to have foisted upon it the actuality
of the political myth that there are no tuition fees in Scotland — there
are but they are effectively hire purchase — study now, pay later.
Even worse, the previous grants have become student loans. Paying for
tertiary education is simply reverting to the pre-1950s!
Pharmacy has a tradition, dating back to the days when premiums had to
be paid by students to their apprentice masters, of establishing competitive
scholarships and prizes to help train the best. I would cite those such
as the Joseph Bell, the Leverhulme, the Kinninmont and the J. P. Todd
scholarships among others. Many of these are now targeted at postgraduate
study due to the former ready availability of undergraduate funding — but
times are changing. Has the time now come to offer these funds on a competitive
basis to undergraduates? It is, perhaps, too early to make such a move
since it is not yet clear whether this Government would clawback funds
from loans equivalent to the scholarship. However, I would suggest that
it is not too early to investigate the funding and mechanics required
for more broad-reaching, competitive undergraduate scholarships. It may
be that the word “competitive” is not thought to be politically
correct but if we were to ask our peers for funding I think that they
would expect to help pay for nothing less than the best. After all, one
of the mantras of the Government is that competition yields the best
results in the public sector.
If we look at some of those who have won prizes or scholarships in the
past we find pharmacists who have excelled in business, developed globally
successful drugs, evolved non-animal testing methods, were innovative
administrators and legislators or who have helped develop our profession.
It is almost certain that
similar characters will exist among future aspiring pharmacists and,
if the Government persists in making it more difficult to afford pharmaceutical
training, it would be nice to have strategies in place to ensure that
we can help finance at least some of our best prospects.
Pharmacy has been kind to me and in return I would be happy to subscribe
a wee bit of my (non index-linked) pension to repay some of those benefits.
Since benevolence is still a Charter obligation, it is possible that
there may be others of a like mind and I would welcome comment.
Ian Caldwell
Larkhall, South Lanarkshire
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