Even as the dearth of seats for the higher education continues in the pharmacy education in Gujarat, thousands of seats are lying vacant in the graduation courses, thanks largely to the mushrooming of pharmacy colleges across the state during the last couple of years.

Almost 3000 seats for undergraduate training for pharmacy in Gujarat are lying vacant, out of the total 8000 seats for B Pharm in the state, according to experts in pharmacy education in the state. The state currently has around 100 pharmacy colleges offering B Pharm courses, out of which 15 came into existence in last one year.

There was a spurt in number of pharmacy colleges in the past five years, and now it has come to a stage where there are not enough takers for the graduation course. However, the higher level courses like M Pharm, which is required for those who aspire to work with the pharma industry or as teachers, still has lesser seats. The state is considered as one of the fastest growing hubs for pharma and allied industries in the country.

The educational institutions in the state has around 600 to 800 seats dedicated for M Pharm students, which at present is less than the requirement and the lack of enough seats in these courses affects the availability of adequately qualified candidates to teach in the increased number of graduate institutions – of which majority consists of the self financing institutions.

“The seats for graduate level courses have saturated now and if the trend goes on, we will find that there are more seats ensured for M Pharm courses in the state eventually leading that level also to meet saturation,” said Dr Harish Padh, vice-chancellor, Sardar Patel University, Gujarat, who was the director with the B V Patel PERD Centre till recently.

The self finance colleges sprouted in the past five years may find it difficult to fill the seats in the graduate level, in near future. However, some of the colleges which were established almost five years back can also move towards introducing M Pharm courses in pharmacy. As per the current norms, an educational institution with more than five years of operational experience can set up post graduation courses for pharmacy education.

Earlier, the students were able to migrate to the neighbouring states like Maharashtra for their living once their education is completed. However, identical to the trend in Gujarat, many of these states has also experienced an increase in the number of pharmacy colleges in the recent past, thus blocking the opportunities for the students from Gujarat, which was plenty in the past.

The educational institutions have to thrust on quality of education than adding up more seats to increase quantity, for survival, said Dr Padh. The institutes like NIPER could survive the challenge, since it has strong backing from the government, but the self finance colleges have to be more cautious for their future plans considering the trend, he added.

The pharmacy education in the state has been flourishing in the past few years, as the number of pharmacy colleges in the state has increased from around seven a decade back to around 85 last year and to 100 in the current academic year, according to sources.