Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) is all set to enforce the uniform syllabus from mid- January 2015. It will see an increased thrust towards Information Communication Technology (ICT). The Council is also working towards creating an open source platform to simplify information access in real-time.

Further, the Council has envisaged the role of unified communications and the integration of disseminating knowledge to the pharmacy course which encompasses telephone lines and wireless signals using radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems. The move will give a fillip to formats such as videoconferencing and distance learning in the pharmacy education covering B Pharm and M Pharm.

Syllabus change is there which is effective from mid-January 2016. It is in sync with the gazetted B Pharm regulations and M Pharm regulations. PCI has the authority to update and upload the same any time. There is no need for a government permission for this and provided full autonomy for this. An important point is that, the new syllabus will give an increased thrust to ICT, Dr B Suresh, vice chancellor, JSS University, Mysuru, president, Pharmacy Council of India and chairman local organising committee, 67th IPC, told Pharmabiz.

Therefore it is a very exciting syllabus for B Pharm and M Pharma in both annual and semester basis. This syllabus will be strongly integrated with ICT enabled education. It will stall the lack of quality education because of non-availability of experienced teachers across remote places, he added.

“The Council is also deliberating on an open source platform. Although it is seen to be a bit too much of an ambitious programme, we are earnestly considering to create an open source platform which will enable any teacher or student have access to information. They could even put up an expert report if there is a committee to vet its contents and clear it for uploading. The pharmacy professionals can view the same for more information on any topic', stated Dr. Suresh.

According to education experts, open source platform is the biggest revolution in Indian pharmacy education. It will organise decision making and working actions of college principals and its faculty. The big booster shot is the open standards, open data and open protocols which will enable pursuing education in an efficient and transparent manner.

A uniform curriculum across colleges in the country is expected to transform the teaching landscape in pharmacy education. So long Indian pharmacy colleges followed different syllabus and the need for an identical format was much wanting. Now this is on similar lines that of the Medical and Dental Councils of India (MCI and DCI), said Dr M D Karvekar, director, Krupanidhi College of Pharmacy and executive committee member, Pharmacy Council of India.