The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7394 p390
1 April 2006

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

PDF 40K, Acrobat Reader

New school aims to be among top five

The idea for a new school of pharmacy at the University of Reading was conceived almost four years ago. Within the next five years, its head of school wants it to be among the top five universities for pharmacy teaching and research in Britain. Dawn Connelly (on the staff of The Journal) checks on its progress so far

Towards the end of 2002, a letter from a locum agency was the seed that planted the idea of a new school of pharmacy in the mind of Gavin Brooks. Professor Brooks is now head of the school of pharmacy at the University of Reading, which accepted its first intake of 49 MPharm undergraduates last October.

Professor Brooks is a pharmacist and was already working at the University of Reading as professor of cardiovascular research when he received the letter from a locum agency offering him work in the Thames Valley area. This led him to contemplate the obvious shortage of pharmacists in the area and the need for a new school. By January 2003 he had put together a strong business case and entered into first-stage accreditation with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

“The geographical location of Reading is such that there is no other pharmacy school in the three counties [Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire] that surround us,” says Professor Brooks. “So the business case was driven by the fact that there was no undergraduate or postgraduate provision.” Postgraduate training at the school began in 2004–05, a year ahead of it accepting undergraduates.

Applications up

With more than 550 applicants for the 40 places on offer last year, it is clear that demand for the new school exists. And applications are up 15 per cent this year for a target intake of 80 students. The school will ultimately aim for a yearly intake of 100 home students plus 10 overseas students per year. Professor Brooks puts the increase in pharmacy applications amid a general decline in university applications (PJ, 25 February, p221) down to desirable postgraduate opportunities and the attractiveness of undertaking a degree that will lead to a guaranteed job. “The introduction of top-up fees will almost certainly have something to do with it and these students, once they graduate, are going to have to start paying back what they have borrowed,” he says. “How are they going to ensure that is likely to be achieved? It is by following a career path that is going to give them good income and pharmacy is an obvious choice,” he explains.

New schools

Professor Brooks believes that regulating the number of new schools being accredited might prove difficult. However, he argues that three things are necessary: a strong business case; academic strength; and proper scrutiny by the Society. “Concerns that I have are that some institutions do not necessarily recognise the amount of resource and commitment that they need to make to a pharmacy school, nor the importance of getting good quality staff in post,” he says.

He believes that one registered pharmacist per school is not enough, even though this is the minimum specified by the Society. “I think it has been recognised for some time in existing schools that the number of registered pharmacists in academic positions is dropping.” He believes that this is partly a reflection of new schools opening but also that salaries in academia are not competitive.

Regarding a potential lack of preregistration places, Professor Brooks has tried to take pre-emptive action. “We have spoken to employers about what skills they see are lacking among pharmacy graduates and we have tried to address those weaknesses, like simple numeracy and communication skills, in our course,” he says.

The University of Reading has a corporate plan to expand its health and related studies and the new school of pharmacy plays a key role in this, explains Professor Brooks. The university already provides undergraduate and postgraduate courses in a wide range of health-related subjects and has also placed a bid for a new medical school.

Research strengths

The school has several research strengths, a virtue which Professor Brooks believes was crucial to the recruitment of high quality staff. Interests include cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease, prodrugs, anticancer agents, drug delivery and formulation, and herbal products.

Reading university is among the top 20 research intensive universities in the UK, says Professor Brooks. “The money that it brings in is about £23m a year for research.”

Investment

The university has invested £4.5m in refurbishing the school of pharmacy and has secured a further £18m from round three of the Science Research Investment Fund (a government initiative to support university infrastructure) to develop a building that will house pharmacy and biomedical research and teaching facilities. “I want Reading to be among the top five pharmacy schools in the country within the next five years; that is our aim,” says Professor Brooks.

Integrating pharmacy practice and clinical pharmacy is central to the MPharm programme at Reading. “There is a lot of core teaching in the first year but the introduction of the clinical pharmacy aspect from day one is one of the strengths of the course,” says Professor Brooks. Problem-based learning is a key feature and forms an important part of the way the school delivers its therapeutics and practice-based modules, he added.

The school has a practice laboratory that aims to evoke the atmosphere of a busy teaching hospital. The laboratory houses three consultation rooms, all of which are video linked to a central desk in the main teaching area. The video stream can be projected on to an interactive white board, allowing students to observe consultations as they happen.

Placements

Students who enrolled in October have already been on observation visits to community and hospital pharmacies and visits to local pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are planned. In their third year students will undertake a practical one-week placement during which they can develop on-the-job skills and put their academic learning into practice. During placements they will be expected to keep a reflective diary — something that should help prepare them for keeping continuing professional development records when they qualify, says Professor Brooks.

All new lecturing staff at the school attend a two-year training programme, which includes presentation skills, grant writing, mentoring skills, student support and management skills.

Competition is what we are all about, admits Professor Brooks. With five new schools opening in the past three years, another due to take students next year, two currently in the Society’s accreditation process, and a further four having made initial enquiries, competition in this sector of the profession seems to be hotting up.