The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7428 p637
25 November 2006

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· Section 60 Order (2)
· Supermarket pharmacy
· Patient safety
· Controlled drugs (2)
· Drug misuse
· The profession
· The Council (2)
· The Society
· Community pharmacy

Letters to the Editor

The profession

Devaluing the master’s degree?

From Dr K. Kipling

I wish to comment on the letter from Dan Lee (PJ, 11 November, p573) concerning the devaluation of the pharmacy degree. I am not a pharmacist; I am a chemical engineer, but I should like to correct his assertion that “a master’s degree was conferred after completing a postgraduate degree that included a thesis. … In which other science degree could a master’s degree be gained in this way?” Many science degrees now offer a master’s level qualification after four years of undergraduate study and these do include the completion of a thesis. I received my MEng through such a programme. In addition, some vocational qualifications offer a master’s degree after three years of academic study sandwiched with an assessed year in industry.

That this argument concerning the devaluation of a science degree does have worth is not in question, but I suspect that a debate concerning the need for a four-year bachelor’s degree to compensate for the quality of the students entering a degree with A-level and GCSE qualifications is required first.

Kathryn Kipling
School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials
University of Newcastle upon Tyne

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