From this year, students will be able to start a new MPharm degree at the University of Leicester, the university announced last week (January 8).
It said that it will welcome its first pharmacy students in autumn 2024, following provisional accreditation by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).
A spokesperson for the university told C+D that it is “planning to take between 30 and 40 students in the first instance”.
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They added that the institution “will review [this] annually as the programme develops” and as it progresses through the accreditation process with the GPhC.
The university said that students will “spend 40 weeks working alongside pharmacists and their teams in clinical placements” at a range of settings including “community pharmacies, hospitals and GP surgeries”.
Typical entry requirements for the four-year degree are “ABB” in three A-Levels, two of which “must be science subjects”, according to the university’s website.
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Announcing the news, the University of Leicester said that the new course will “tackle [the] UK’s pharmacist shortage” and “plug the nation’s skill gap”.
The announcement highlighted that “pharmacists are on the UK government’s skilled worker shortage list” and that government labour market data suggests that by 2027 there will be 4,700 new pharmacist jobs open.
“Dire need”
Head of the University of Leicester’s school of healthcare Professor David Wright said that the course “will be led by pharmacists, delivered by pharmacists for pharmacists”.
He added that the UK’s “dire need of newly qualified pharmacists” has led the university to work “quickly and closely with patients, carers and employers” to design the “new and innovative” programme.
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Professor Wright said that “teaching will be delivered in small groups” and that from “day one”, the curriculum will focus on “developing the skills and professionalism needed to care for patients”.
“Our course offers applicants the chance to launch a rewarding career in a profession that is full of opportunities to progress”, he added.
GPhC: “Increased interest from universities”
The news comes as Plymouth University announced earlier this month (January 2) that it would also offer the University of Bath’s MPharm degree from September this year.
Meanwhile, at the end of last year, C+D revealed that a new pharmacy school is also set to open at Teesside University from 2025.
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When C+D approached the GPhC about the sudden increase in universities offering MPharm degrees, a spokesperson for the regulator said it has “received increased interest from universities in offering MPharm degrees”.
The GPhC is “working with those universities to guide them through the accreditation process”, they added.
