Course Overview
This course aims to provide students with a specialist education in the pharmaceutical sciences and to enable them to gain the skills and attitudes required for the responsible practice of pharmacy.
The course is divided into three general sections:
* Year 1 - Introductory and basic science
* Year 2 - Study of drugs and pharmaceutical sciences
* Years 3 and 4 - Applied and clinical studies
During Years 3 and 4, students are placed in community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy and rural sites through a practice-based experiential learning program.
Graduates must undertake a 12-month traineeship period after the 4-year degree to become eligible to sit the examinations for registration as a pharmacist.
Other Details
The combination of biomedical and pharmaceutical science and clinical expertise in drug use in a pharmacy degree prepares pharmacy graduates for work in a variety of fields. Graduates work as pharmacists in the community or in hospitals. Many pharmacists are involved in clinical trials used to evaluate new drug products and in preparing documentation on the effectiveness and safety of new drugs (required for marketing approval). Pharmacists are involved extensively in the manufacturing, research, quality control and marketing of pharmaceuticals. Pharmacists are also employed in government health departments where they may be involved in regulation and approval of new pharmaceutical products. Some pharmacy graduates specialise in providing drug information to other health professionals, hospitals and government departments, while others undertake postgraduate training for careers as academics or researchers or in more specialised fields such as toxicology.