The University of Suffolk (UoS) will offer a new pharmacy degree from September next year to help address the industry’s “skills shortage”, it announced this week (September 23).
The four-year Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) programme will “accommodate around 40 students for the first year” and will “benefit from a brand-new, fully-stocked mock dispensary and clinical skills suite” and new labs, the university said.
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The new course is “part of efforts to address” pharmacist shortages and “marks the latest step” in the UoS’s work to tackle “skills shortages in key industries in the region”, it added.
The university is working on securing General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) accreditation for the programme, it said, with the course to be “provisionally accredited” until the process is complete “upon the graduation of its first cohort in 2030”.
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It added that course staff are “establishing links with pharmacies in the region to ensure the course is developed with clinical stakeholder needs in mind” and can “provide the essential placements students will complete as part of their learning”.
Construction of the clinical skills suite in the university’s Health and Wellbeing Building is “due to get underway later this year”, while work in the James Hehir Building, where two labs will be built, will start in February next year and “be completed in August”.
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According to the NHS’s Long Term Workforce Plan, published in 2023, the number of pharmacists needs to grow by an estimated 31 to 55% by 2032/33 - while training places for pharmacists must see an increase of nearly 50% by 2031/32.
Suffolk and North East Essex’s Integrated Care Board (ICB) has “recognised the significant need for training of more pharmacists in the East of England”, and “included a commitment to supporting the University of Suffolk in developing the business case for a pharmacy school”, the UoS said.
It added that “just two universities in East Anglia offer MPharm courses in a region with a population of around 6.3 million people”, while areas like the East Midlands have four universities offering pharmacy degrees for “a smaller population of 4.8 million”.
“Recognised need”
Dr Georgina Marsh, head of pharmacy at the UoS, said there is “a recognised need for more pharmacists in the region and the UK”.
She said that the new course “will prepare students with all the skills they need to be future pharmacy leaders, confident prescribers upon registration and collaborative healthcare professionals”.
“Delivered in our fantastic facilities … and coupled with strong links with service partners we are already establishing, students will enjoy an innovative, forward-facing curriculum that prioritises real-world experience, patient-centred care and professional excellence,” she added.
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It comes after the University of Sunderland was this month ranked the number one UK university for pharmacy and pharmacology by the Guardian.
The rankings are based on student satisfaction with teaching and feedback, and whether students go into a career within 15 months, among other criteria.
