FIP, as the global leader for pharmacy, has taken the initiative to build the “FIP World List of Pharmacy Schools”, which will be the most comprehensive and up-to-date list of pharmacy institutions from around the world. This global list is intended to guide all pharmacy stakeholders, from students to policymakers, in assessing the appropriateness and effectiveness of pharmacy education strategies. The availability, completeness and quality of FIP’s World List of Pharmacy Schools means it will provide a unique source of information for pharmaceutical workforce policies, procedures and plans.
Further background on the FIP World List of Pharmacy Schools:
The FIP World List of Pharmacy Schools is an initiative to monitor pharmaceutical capacity and capability, similar to those of many other global organisations, such as the World Medical Schools List held by the World Medical Association. Given 2021 is the World Health Organization’s Year of Health and Care Workers, the need for our global organisations to demonstrate increased capacity in all health workers is key to ensure our professions are not further diminished but amplified.
FIP is a founder member of the World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA) with doctors, nurses, dentists, and physiotherapists. All WHPA members have been requested to feedback their schools’ status to the WHO as part of pandemic preparedness, and FIP having a list of accredited pharmacy schools will help to identify where schools may be needed and created to ensure long-term pharmaceutical workforce capacity.
University of Copenhagen
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
The Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences, dating back to 1892, merged on 1 January 2007 with the University of Copenhagen and 1 January 2012 with the Faculty of Health Sciences and became the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
A central location in Copenhagen places the University of Copenhagen and the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences squarely in the Oeresund Region and Medicon Valley – a major global centre of excellence for medicine and biotechnology.
The School of Pharmaceutical Sciences provides education and research focusing on the pharmaceutical sector covering all the main aspects of drugs: the fundamental knowledge of how drugs act, the design and development of new active substances and their subsequent formulation into drugs, and the use and role of medicines in society.
Cutting-edge research
To continue the upward curve for the school of Pharmaceutical Sciences, we must ensure high professional standards in research and teaching while demonstrating our dynamism and willingness to change. To ensure that our research is competitive internationally, we have identified six central strategic central research areas:
• Drug-oriented analytical chemistry • Neuro-pharmacology • Pharmaceutical technology • Drug delivery • Medicinal chemistry – structure-based drug research • Optimal drug therapy
Thus the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences strives constantly to keep abreast of the field – and at the forefront in our central research areas.
Education targeted at the future
The School of Pharmaceutical Sciences offers a ‘2+3’ scheme for the five-year full-time programme in pharmacy – in other words a three-year bachelor’s programme and a two-year MSc programme.
We also offer two international two-year full-time graduate programmes for students with pharmaceutical bachelor’s degrees as well as students with non-pharmaceutical bachelor’s degrees (MSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences and MSc in Medicinal Chemistry) as well as three part-time master’s programmes: Master of Drug Management, Master of Industrial Drug Development and Master of Pharmaceutical Regulatory Affairs.
Employment areas
Around 65% of the pharmacy graduates find positions in the pharmaceutical industry, 20% in the public sector (universities and regulatory bodies) and 15% in private pharmacies. Graduates from the MSc programmes in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Medicinal Chemistry will primarily find employment opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry including the biotech and medical device industries.
High priority for research training
Research programmes – PhD studies – have been a pivotal area of interest for the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences for many years, acquiring an extra dimension with the establishment of the Drug Research Academy (DRA), a research programme with an industrial focus.
DRA is co-financed by the pharmaceutical industry, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Danish Medicines Agency and School of Pharmaceutical Sciences. The Academy trains researchers in an interdisciplinary setting with a clear industrial focus, while helping to reinforce the strong research environment at the School.
Thus the Academy can be considered one of the tools we use to promote dialogue with the world outside the University and to contribute knowledge to the rest of society both nationally and internationally. Therefore, it is vital to our future that we have the opportunity to continue developing the school of excellence concept underlying DRA.
Ready for the future
As a School at the University of Copenhagen, the largest university in Scandinavia, we are well equipped to take up these challenges and ensure that our graduates and PhDs will continue to be sought after and able to make highly qualified contributions as drug experts in the pharmaceutical industry, community pharmacies, hospitals and throughout the public sector.
Students The School of Pharmaceutical Sciences has about 1,300 students, of which 1,200 are pharmacy students, 175 PhD students, 100 part-time master’s students, plus approx. 200 visiting students and students following single courses.
Staff .
The number of staff at the two departments associated to the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Pharmacy and Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, is about 450, of whom approximately half are academic staff.