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The school of pharmacy at the University of Nottingham’s
campus in Malaysia |
Semenyih campus
Semenyih is the first purpose-built British university campus
outside the UK and was designed to reflect the attributes of University
Park Campus in Nottingham, UK.
The campus combines high quality accommodation with state-of-the-art
learning and teaching facilities. It also has a purpose-built sports
facility, a students association building, a food court and shops.
Students have 24-hour access to computer facilities. |
Semenyih campus
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Nottingham university has the first integrated school of pharmacy spread
over two campuses — one in Nottingham and one in Semenyih, 30km
from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
The university has established a “2+2” MPharm course, where
students spend the first two years studying in Malaysia and the final
two years studying at the university’s UK campus in Nottingham.
Forty students have now completed the first year of the course and one
has been awarded a prize for the best pharmacy student in the first year
across both the Malaysian and UK campuses.
The university first established its Malaysian campus in 2000 in Kuala
Lumpur city centre and in August 2005 it moved to a purpose-built campus
at Semenyih. It was the opening of this bespoke campus that allowed pharmacy
and other science courses to become established since laboratories and
other facilities could be designed and built to suit their needs.
The school of pharmacy was the first school to be established within
the faculty of health and biological sciences; the school of biosciences
came next in early 2006. The school of pharmacy is led by Stephen Doughty,
an associate professor from the University of Nottingham and dean of
the faculty, and is staffed by other faculty members appointed from Nottingham
and internationally.
The academic management of the Malaysian site is the responsibility of
Saul Tendler, head of the school of pharmacy at the University of Nottingham. “We
strive for [the Malaysian site] to be an integral part of the school
[in Nottingham],” said Professor Tendler. The learning outcomes
for the course in Malaysia are the same as those for the course in Nottingham
and students follow the same modules. In addition, students in Malaysia
attend lectures on what it is like to practise as a pharmacist in the
UK. “It is vital to us to ensure that the standards of the students
are the same. Students come out with an indistinguishable certificate,” explains
Professor Tendler. “The students cannot sit exactly the same paper
because of time differences, so we have to have two sets of examinations
approved by the examiners,” explains Professor Tendler. We have
to show that the papers are comparable and that the marking is comparable,
he adds.
The course is in the process of being accredited by the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society and, subject to approval by the Society’s education committee,
full accreditation is expected to be achieved in May 2007 (see Panel).
Students who graduate from the 2+2 course will be eligible for dual registration — with
the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and with the Pharmacy Board of Malaysia.
Society accreditation of overseas courses
The process for accreditation by the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society of an MPharm course being delivered overseas
is essentially the
same as it is for an MPharm taught in the UK. The Society allows
the first two years of the four-year course to be taught overseas,
then students must study in the UK for the final two years to ensure
that they are exposed directly to UK practice. “Delivery
overseas must be identical to that in the UK: all modules and learning
outcomes must be the same,” says Damian Day, head of accreditation
at the Society.
Mr Day explains that the UK university prepares a written submission
covering, syllabus, staffing and resources, which is used as the
basis of a site visit to discuss the proposal with staff (and students
once the course has begun). “We use the same set of criteria
with a few minor adjustments. An accreditation report is written
and submitted to the Society’s education committee for consideration,” he
says.
UK universities are allowed to deliver the course overseas at their
own campus or in collaboration with an overseas partner. “If
the latter is the case then the partner must be recognised as a
bona fide higher education provider in the country in question
and there must be a legally binding agreement supporting the collaboration,” explains
Mr Day. He adds: “To be sure all aspects of the student experience
are considered the submission must address all the precepts in
the Quality Assurance Agency’s Code of Practice for Collaborative
Provision, a national quality benchmark for overseas delivery.”
The Society looks for active collaboration between the UK and overseas
to ensure that the two versions of the course are the same. This
involves regular staff exchanges, both to and from the UK, and
UK staff and external examiners must participate in the assessment
of overseas students. “Because universities use online learning
routinely now, it is comparatively easy for staff and students
to keep in touch wherever they are. Students can download lectures
and lecture notes, and talk to staff as if they were on the same
campus. Distance simply is not the barrier it used to be if technology
is used effectively and creatively,” says Mr Day.
The accreditation of overseas delivery must be financially neutral
for the Society and there is no cost to members, he adds. |
Pharmacy
higher education in Malaysia is controlled and regulated, and there is
an accreditation process which is driven by the Pharmacy Board
of Malaysia. “We have talked with the Pharmacy Board of Malaysia
about the course and what it delivers and, given that students acquire — subject
to accreditation — dual registration, we are certainly fulfilling
their training needs as well as the UK training needs.”
Damian Day, head of accreditation at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society,
explains that the Society has developed its policy on overseas pharmacy
provision for two reasons. First, the MPharm is an international gold
standard and, secondly, UK universities are market leaders in global
education. “As the higher education sector diversifies, the Society
is ensuring its policies keep abreast of those changes,” he says.
Opportunities
MPharm students on a placement visit at Selayang Hospital, Malaysia |
There are not enough pharmacists in Malaysia and the Pharmacy Board
of Malaysia has been welcoming and supportive of the initiative. Next
year, the course in Malaysia will recruit 50 students and this number
may increase in future years. Demand for the course is high. It is
open to Malaysian and overseas students and the entry requirements
are comparable to those required for the Nottingham site MPharm.
The new course will also provide an opportunity for students undertaking
the MPharm at the Nottingham campus to spend part, or all, of their first
or second year studying at the campus in Malaysia. So far, three students
from Nottingham have signed up to study in Malaysia next year and Professor
Tendler expects this to increase. “I would imagine that a large
number of students will want to spend a semester in Malaysia. It is like
a gap year without the gap, and the cost of living is much lower.” Challenges
Professor Tendler describes several challenges involved in developing
the course. “First, we had to design and have the facilities
built on the other side of the globe, and that posed some challenges.
But at the same time it was fun designing a whole new facility.”
Recruiting staff is another challenge, explains Professor Tendler. “There
are a number of Nottingham secondees there. Making sure the staff over
there are integrated to the course here is a really big challenge. We
have to ensure that they understand what we are doing and we understand
what they are doing at all times. This means that all staff at all levels
have to think about the impact of any decision they make on the course
in Malaysia so that [the courses] are sychronised and aligned.” He
explains that the staff have formal teleconferences once a month and
the staff-student committees in each campus receive the minutes from
the meetings of their respective counterparts.
The school also has to consider what will happen when cohorts of students
start transferring to the Nottingham campus at the end of their second
year. “We are gaining academic, administration, clerical and technical
staff to allow us to maintain our [student] numbers,” says Professor
Tendler.
Dr Doughty says that the most significant challenge for him is to ensure
that the student experience is as similar as possible, irrespective of
which campus they are based. “We do this by making sure that we
have close working relationships with colleagues on both campuses and
spend a lot of time communicating with one another.”
As director of studies for pharmacy at the Malaysia campus, Dr Doughty
also has to ensure that the necessary quality assurance processes and
procedures are in place to guarantee that the students are meeting the
same aims and learning objectives.
“Once I have done that, I have just got the ‘small’ challenge
of making sure the students have fun and enjoy their pharmacy studies
just as they would if they were in Nottingham — although they do
not need that much persuading,” he says. The pharmacy students
have formed their own student society, which organises both social and
professional activities, and a number of students from the Malaysia campus
attended the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association annual
conference in Bradford this year. Benefits
An open air courtyard inside the pharmacy building |
The University of Nottingham has a long tradition of recruiting Malaysian
students, says Professor Tendler. The new course will be beneficial
for those students who cannot afford to spend four years studying overseas.
He also believes that some students may prefer to learn in their own
country or to travel to Malaysia from countries geographically closer
to it than the UK, and some may prefer to learn in smaller cohorts.
“One can imagine that with the globalisation of education, young
people who are considering universities in five or 10 years’ time
might think further than a UCAS form and might think about travelling around
the world to gain new experiences,” Professor Tendler predicts.
He adds: “The world of pharmacy education is changing radically
and there are real opportunities out there.”
From the university’s perspective, having the campus in Malaysia
widens its horizons and its understanding of different cultures and practices
and helps it to understand global trends in education.
The Society has received enquiries from several other universities about
overseas accreditation but has not yet received any formal applications. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal