Pharmacy colleges in the country are facing the dual challenge of a dearth in quality senior faculty and lack of active placement cells which are hindering the access to B Pharm candidates to openings in the industry.

Poor quality of pharmacy post-graduates and doctorates employed by colleges impart mediocre education putting the institutions in a pincer like situation. Pharmacy college chiefs opine that a strong industry-academia tie-up could enable getting hold of right jobs for the right candidate.

India has around 1,800 pharmacy colleges enrolling almost 1,00,000 students, few find a superior placement. “This is largely attributed to the fact that many candidates armed with M Pharm and PhD qualifications who lack proper knowledge and skills opt for a teaching career. It has messed up the quality of B Pharma coaching imparted to the students,” Dr Divakar Goli, professor & principal, Acharya & BM Reddy College of Pharmacy told Pharmabiz.

According to Prof Raveendra Ramachandra, chairman, education division, IPA Karnataka state branch and head, department of chemistry, RR College of Pharmacy, of the 72 colleges in the state only six have active placement cells. Out of these, three colleges in Bengaluru are PES College of Pharmacy, Acharya & BM Reddy College of Pharmacy and Al- Ameen College of Pharmacy. The other three are Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal, JSS College of Pharmacy, Mysuru and KLE College of Pharmacy, Belagavi.

“At RR Pharmacy College, there are no dedicated personnel appointed at its placement cell, instead, senior faculty provide the required assistance to track pharma companies offering job openings to help students,” he added.

“The quality of M Pharm candidates has deteriorated primarily because of no faculty which leads these students to choose teaching profession. It is an easy way to be immediately employed because of a dearth of faculty,” noted Prof. S Mohan, director, PES College of Pharmacy.

The degeneration in education quality leads to unemployability by the pharma industry. The stark reality is that many pharmacy graduates do not have any idea about this sector and its requirements. Pharma industry too faces difficulty to get the right personnel even thought they are ready to offer a lucrative pay pack, pointed out Dr Goli.

There is an urgent need for industry and academia to team up and train the trainers to avoid the drug product withdrawals and warning letters from regulators. Acharya & BM Reddy College of Pharmacy has already tied up with the industry and the teachers and students are guided towards future needs, said Goli.

In Karnataka from its 72 pharmacy colleges, 3,000 graduate annually. An industry –academia interaction or related state associations will need to circulate job opportunities which would make it easy for placement cells to approach, said Prof. Ramachandra.