Text a pharmaceutical education in great britain

There are about 18 educational institutions providing education in pharmacy in Great Britain. Among them there are universities and Schools of Pharmacy. The Council for National Academic Awards and Education Committee of the Pharmaceutical Society are responsible for pharmaceutical education in Universities and colleges.

School leavers in Great Britain may have different certificates. At the age of 16 they take General Certificate of Education (G.C.E.) Ordinary Levels (“O”Levels) in as many subjects as they want to. If you get good “O”Level results, you can stay on at school until you are 18. Here you prepare for Advanced Level Exams (“A”Level). Three good “A”Level passes mean that you have a choice of going on to University – though this is not automatic. Universities choose their students after interviews and competition for places at University is fierce.

For all British citizens a place at university brings with it a grant from their Local Education Authority. The grants cover tuition fees and some of the living expenses. The amount depends on the parents’ income. If the parents do not earn much money, their children will receive a full grant, which will cover all their expenses.

Pharmacy students in Great Britain take a four-year course of study. First year pre-pharmaceutical studies comprise Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Biology and Human Biology. Human Biology not only deals with normal condition of health but also with physiological functions of children, young people, and elderly people and also with infection and immunology. The first year curriculum includes a course of English and a sociological course “Man and Society”.

The second year syllabus includes such subjects as Chemistry of Pharmaceutical Materials, Pharmaceutical Biology and Biochemisry, Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Processes and Preparations. In the second year the sociological study focuses on the history of science, society and pharmacy. Some formal tuition in statistics is given in the second year.

The third year syllabus consists of compulsory studies in Pharmaceutics and Pharmacology and through a system of options students can gain some special knowledge of hospital pharmacy and industrial pharmacy. Social studies are limited in the third year. Group visits are arranged to various organizations of the Public Health, Social and Welfare Services, and seminar groups discuss the visits.

After each course of study there is an examination session and they graduate from the University or Pharmacy School after the third year.

The student of the first and the second year can obtain practical experience during long vacations. Practical work starts only in the fourth year. The graduate practical training in the fourth year is carried out in isolation from the academic course and is subjected to little, if any control. Only after a year of practical training and a practical examination in pharmacy specialists are registered as pharmacy technicians, pharmaceutists and analytical chemists. Pharmacy graduates don’t get appointments for work. They have to make their own arrangements for work.

The common name for a pharmaceutist in England is chemist.