Overseas institutions to be allowed to teach part of MPharm course
Overseas institutions are to be allowed to teach up to half of a British MPharm degree course.
At the February
Council meeting, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s
Council agreed to extend the Society’s process for accrediting
pharmacy degree courses to allow some or all of the first two years of
the
four-year course to be taught overseas, either on an overseas campus
of a British university or by an overseas institution working in partnership
with a British university.
Current policy, which was agreed in May 2005, only allows teaching by
staff of a British university on
its own campus (PJ, 4 June 2005, p684).
The change in policy reflects the Council’s decision last year
to allow its overseas pharmacists assessment programme to be delivered
abroad through collaborative partnerships between British
universities and overseas partner institutions (PJ, 17 December 2005, p759).
Presenting a proposal on behalf of the Education Committee, Philip Green
(Director of Education and Registration) told the Council meeting that
the recommended change in policy would remove a number of anomalies and
would be a consistent and appropriate way of dealing with issues that
have arisen. The proposal, which had the full support of the Education
Committee, would enhance and not detract from what the Council was trying
to achieve.
The proposal listed a number of criteria for use in evaluating the suitability
of a collaborative accreditation application. The application would have
to come from a university running an existing fully accredited MPharm
course in Britain. The British university would have overall responsibility
for the overseas delivery and the elements of the course taught overseas
would have to be identical to those taught in Britain. The overseas teaching
would have to be in English and provided by staff who collectively had
appropriate skills, including expertise in the practice of pharmacy in
Britain.
Standards for entry to the course would have to be equivalent to those
in Britain. No more than 50 per cent of a course could be delivered overseas
and the final 50 per cent would have to be taught in Britain. By graduation,
all students would have to have experienced pharmacy practice in Britain
and be academically prepared for preregistration training in Britain.
Asked about cost implications, Mr Green said that accreditation visits
overseas would be made on a full-cost recovery basis.
Approving the accreditation proposal, the Council also agreed an accreditation
methodology based on that adopted in May 2005.
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