University boosts overseas pharmacist course places by 75% amid huge demand
A Midlands pharmacy school celebrating its centenary has told C+D that it will have a larger overseas conversion intake next academic year due to “unprecedented demand”.
Aston University has increased places on its postgraduate diploma for overseas pharmacists (OSPAP) programme by 75% for the 2023/24 intake, it has revealed.
A spokesperson for Aston University told C+D yesterday (July 17) that “unprecedented demand” for places on its OSPAP course led the university to boost available spots from 40 to 70 places.
But despite increasing the number of places, the university is “not currently taking any further applications for the OSPAP programmes” due to the huge demand from prospective students, according to its website.
Read more: University moots bringing back overseas pharmacist course amid rising demand
Midlands-based Aston University currently recruits “around 160” students to its MPharm degree every year.
A spokesperson for the university told C+D that it is “aware of the intention” in the recently announced NHS long term workforce plan to increase pharmacy training places by 29% in the next five years.
Read more: Workforce plan: Pharmacy school says class size increases need 'consideration'
They said that the university would be “giving consideration” as to how it responds to this “in due course”.
“Any increase in student numbers would need to be managed so as to maintain the quality of the experience that our MPharm students can expect,” the spokesperson said.
OSPAP demand gap
In December, C+D revealed that Kingston University was reviewing whether to reopen its OSPAP programme due to a “resurgence” in demand for the course.
OSPAP programmes are currently offered by Aston University, the University of Sunderland, the University of Brighton and the University of Hertfordshire, according to the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), which accredits pharmacy education.
Read more: 'Oversubscribed': Training places for overseas pharmacist courses full for next two years
In November, C+D revealed that all OSPAP places at the four universities that offered the postgraduate course had been filled for both the 2023 and 2024 intakes.
Pharmacy workforce transformation lead for Norfolk and Waveney integrated care board (NWICB) Ceinwen Mannall told C+D at the time that the shortage of OSPAP places was “one of the biggest hurdles that we need to get over” and questioned whether the conversion programme was “fit for purpose”.
C+D reported the following month that NWICB was in the “initial planning stages” of a project that would attract overseas qualified pharmacists to work in the area.
Centenary celebrations
The increase in OSPAP places comes as Aston University’s pharmacy school last week celebrated its 100th anniversary.
The pharmacy school hosted 100 guests at a reception held last week, including NHS England’s (NHSE) deputy chief pharmaceutical officer Richard Cattell and Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) chair and Aston alumnus Mark Koziol, it said on Friday (July 14).
Read more: ICB planning overseas pharmacist recruitment project to address staffing issues
In 1923, the then-Birmingham Municipal Technical School started to offer full-time pharmacy courses to the general public, with degrees awarded by the University of London, it added.
When in 1966 the technical school became Aston University, the university began awarding degrees in its own name, and almost 3,000 students have graduated from its MPharm degree since it was introduced in 1997, it said.
