“The pharmacy education in Gujarat is passing through a difficulty phase” says, Dr Kashyap. K Bhatt, Principal, Indukaka Ipcowala College of Pharmacy, New Vallabh Vidyanagar. According to the view of experts in pharmacy education in the state almost 3000 out of 8000 seats for undergraduate (UG) training programmes for Bachelor of Pharmacy (B. Pharm) are unoccupied.  The UG courses in Gujarat are actually passing through a sweltering situation. The number of seats available for B. Pharm is in surplus of its demand.  Currently, there are around 100 pharmacy colleges offering B. Pharm course in Gujarat, out of which 15 came into existence during the last one year.

Not only UG courses but post-graduate (PG) courses are also mushrooming with around 3000-4000 seats dedicated for Master of Pharmacy (M. Pharm) students. As per current norms of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), an educational institution with more than 5 years of operational experience can start PG courses. This suggests that M. Pharm courses might also reach a level of saturation.  It has added manpower availability in the state as the students don’t have to migrate to the neighbouring states for PG (as it was in the past). If we take a look at the number of seats for Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D.) courses in Gujarat, it seems that there is lack of required number of seats and this has affected availability of qualified candidates to work with pharma industry and also in academics.

The mushrooming of pharmacy colleges in Gujarat in the past few years was a clear indication of the growing demand for pharmacy professionals in the country but now it has come to drenched stage where there are not enough takers for UG courses.  Especially, the self-finance colleges sprouted in the past five years are facing the prospect of shut-down for want of students. Also as a result of these, many colleges have not further sent their applications to Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) for approval of the courses.

Those likely to suffer maximum damage are pharmacy colleges in rural areas. Gilbert Macwan, Registrar of Gujarat Chapter of the Pharmacy Council of India says, “Mushrooming of pharmacy colleges, unaffordable fees and poor future prospects are some of the factors due to which the profession has lost its charm.”  He also added that “there is not much demand for pharmacy graduate in the industry as even Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree holders can do the same job with a few weeks of training.” (An irony of pharmacy profession which is so far overlooked in our country).   

There are several other reasons for the waning popularity of pharmacy profession in Gujarat.  Dr B G Patel, former Vice-Chancellor, Sardar Patel University & presently director, Institute of Science and Technology for Advance Studies and Research (ISTAR) says, “The standard of pharmacy education has been deteriorated due to lack of qualified & well trained staff and even infrastructure.  So there is an urgent need to initiate an administrative and academic exercise to bring changes and reforms keeping in pace with current and emerging trends in field of pharmacy.” No longer is education taken as skill, attitude and values imparting system. It has actually become a knowledge industry where every individual works for profit making.  This is proved by a large number of sprouted pharmacy colleges being run without adequate number of qualified pharmacy teachers and some even without principals. Also some of these pharmacy colleges lack even the basic infrastructure such as laboratory and equipments. It is high time now, the managements having mainly commercial interest and considering students as customers and teachers as promoters must stop from taking education as business venture for future profit making by taking appropriate action.

The notable elements of quality educations are quality of student being admitted, qualification and experience of teacher, quality of teaching, kind of environment for teaching and learning process, counselling and research activities. The teachers have special role and responsibility to play as knowledge imparting centres are grooming future trained pharmacists. Dr Kashyap. K Bhatt has further added, “The mushroom growth of pharmacy colleges has also led to non-availability of experienced senior faculty and competent pharmacy graduates.”

The serious shortage in the number of trained and qualified pharmacists and competency concerns can also be addressed by effective accreditation of pharmacy training institutes.

Dr B G Patel identifies the need for accreditation and says, “In the age of globalization, quality and competitiveness have become major concerns. It is emphasized that more and more programmes of pharmacy should be brought under National Board of Accreditation (NBA). However, till date NBA could not complete more than 10 to 15% work in this context, due to burgeoning growth of institutes catering pharmacy education. The new generation pharmacy teachers should come forward to identify the current issues which need to be addressed in order to enhance capacity building in terms of skill development amongst students.”

In nutshell, the pharmacy educational institutions in Gujarat should focus on quality education putting aside their commercial interests for survival. It is necessary to concentrate on vertical growth rather than horizontal growth.