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Letters to the Editor
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Pharmacy education
What will be the bust following the boom?
From Professor J. D. Smart, MRPharmS
I was interested in a practice research paper presented by Ian Bates
at this year’s British Pharmaceutical
Conference, regarding the
numbers of students admitted and studying at UK schools of pharmacy (Bates
IP, Taylor KMG, Obiols L. A trends analysis of undergraduates enrolled
for pharmacy degrees at UK schools of pharmacy). It would appear that
after several years of relative stability (and taking into account the
introduction of the fourth year of the master’s course) the past
couple of years have seen a major increase in the intakes into UK schools
of pharmacy, a trend which is likely to accelerate into the future, potentially
doubling the numbers graduating in a relatively short period.
Some schools of pharmacy have in recent years dramatically increased
their admissions numbers, while the (circa) 10 — at the moment — proposed
new schools of pharmacy have business plans based on 100 or more intakes.
Since pharmacy education takes five years to complete, this major increase
in graduating pharmacists will only become apparent to working pharmacists
in the next two to three years.
So what effect could this have? There is the potentially desirable effect
of eliminating the workforce shortage and moving to a surplus in qualified
pharmacists. However, it is clear that the pool of applicants for pharmacy
courses will not increase significantly (supply and demand appears to
be about matched at the moment). Indeed with increasing numbers of places
available in medicine and the associated professions, the “market” is
becoming more competitive (especially if the emerging higher education
tuition fee structure is disadvantageous to pharmacy undergraduates relative
to the other health care professions). The academic achievement and motivation
of entrants are therefore likely to decline as schools need to fill their
courses with whoever is available. Preregistration placement numbers
are unlikely to match the growth in the output of schools, so a significant
number (a third) of graduates will not be able to progress to membership
of the profession, which will not only produce a pool of disgruntled
individuals but is bound to affect the desirability of pharmacy courses
to future applicants.
Pharmacy academics could become an increasingly rare sight in schools
of pharmacy and the introduction of practice placements within the undergraduate
curriculum for these increased numbers, favoured by the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society, would put an excessive burden on trusts and community pharmacies.
As a health care profession we are unusual in that there is no planning
of undergraduate places relative to likely future workforce needs, and
numbers are left to the free market and the need of vice-chancellors
in universities with recruitment problems to balance the books. In unregulated
free markets, “booms” often precede “busts”,
and it will be interesting to see what form “bust” will take
in this case and whether it will have an effect on the status of the
profession in the coming years. There are so many exciting new developments
in pharmacy to welcome at the moment and it is to be hoped that our lack
of control on the numbers preparing to enter the profession will not
be too damaging.
I would be interested to hear other views on this matter.
John Smart
University of Brighton
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Pharmaceutical Journal