PDA slams universities for focus on money not jobs

What I find amazing is that fact that no control has been put on the universities by any of the pharmacy bodies. Unlike other health care professions(such as Dentistry and Medicine) pharmacy currently does not have student caps or a control of student numbers. There will be angry graduates if things carry on the way they are as they may not have a job to go to due to the increased number of gradutes.

Something has to be done as a matter of urgency to get universities to reduce the number of pharmacy students that they are taking on other wise the job market will crash and MORALE will be zapped out of the profession. The career will be in turmoil and there may not be enough jobs for everyone. The new 5 year integrated degree(MPC) may come into fruition but that is a few years away yet and by that time a 9 year lag of oversupply could enter the market and cause chaos in terms of job prospects with there being too many graduates.

This is a seriOus matter that has to be addressed as a matter of urgency as simple math tells you that we are heading for a disaster in terms of jobs, if pharmacy student numbers are not controlled.

Students and Pharmacists are eagerly waiting news on what the PDA,RPS, Council of pharmacy heads at universties etc do in order to control the number of graduates or create more roles for pharmacists quickly so that people do not end up in pain and turmoil (and huge debts) after four years of study and then not having a job.

The BPSA has already published a paper highlighting the huge concern that they have regarding the fact that there may not be enough pre reg places to cater for the increasing number of graduates and have called for URGENT action.

If only this urgency was shown a few years ago so that we would not see this panic over jobs now. With more and more pharmacy schools opening alarm bells should have been ringing at the pharmacy bodies in order for them to action but unfortunately nothing was done to control the potential over supply.

One can only hope that student caps or something to a similar effect (or create more roles) is done very soon in order to manage the serious situation that is brewing in terms of too many pharmacy graduates entering the market.

There will be alot of angry pharmacy with massive debtS who will be asking questions if something is not done very soon. 5 years and then no job is frightening scenario and may students and graduates are verly alarmed right now and this topic has everyone concerned.

Love it or hate it? The old RPSGB which did give some leadership in the past managed the numbers game very well for many years and now it has become a bit of a bun fight with these new universities.

Market forces will always have an answer to over supply then the obvious outcome is lower salaries in community already hard pressed by cat M. The knock on effect will be that the hospital pharmacists will have justify their pay scales. Internship for pharmacy sorry prereg year another outcome ?

Gerry - Unfortunately the RPSGB's ability to regulate the number of universities only lasted as long as people thought they had the power to do so. A university realised the RPSGB had no legal powers to prevent new schools of opening, and that was the start of the current explosion in the number of schools.

This is hinted at in the BPSA discussion paper ( http://bit.ly/StudentNumbersPaper ) which came as a surprise to a number of people. I personally beleive a system is needed to prevent new schools opening as easily, and current (including the three due to recruit next year) schools should have their cohort sizes managed. However, this is easier said than done and we need to work out the deman side of the profession first and utitlising pharmacists' skills (for example, the PDA's two pharmacist models).

Scottish universities under NES are required to provide pre-reg places for all students, if they cannot provide this then they cannot take any more students on, thus limiting numbers that way. This is probably something that should be introduced in England.

Equally, a pharmacy is an excellent education process in itself so why limit access?

We do need more pharmacists to a point, but there should be a cap. Who is responsible for controlling the numbers once there is a status quo? If a cap is not introduced it will be bad news for all pharmacists, even those qualifying in 2 or 3 years time. In the long term it could also back fire on the universities. Pharmacy as profession is close to medicine and dentistry, if their numbers are controlled, would it not make sense to control pharmacist numbers? This is yet another reason for pharmacists to unite and take control of pharmacy before its too late