Hi there!

I'll be doing my AS exam at the end of the year, but my school's internal deadline for UK uni applications are by September so right now I'm choosing unis to apply to in the UK. If there aren't any scholarships for pharmacy degrees in the UK(providing I manage to get an offer and the results) or I wasn't shortlisted for any then I guess I'm stuck with chancing on Singapore, HK, Australia or right here in Malaysia(I'm basically aiming for a scholarship/financial aid no matter what).

If I end up with Malaysia, I am interested in pursuing a 2+2 Mpharm because of the variety of countries that recognise it and also to hopefully experience a partially overseas education with a local scholarship(like the Star Education fund). However, I think that only Nottingham offers the Mpharm 2+2 programme now(as I have seen that IMU has scrapped their Strathclyde programme and I have heard that Segi is scrapping their Sunderland programme as well, anybody have any clue why this is happening?) and it seems a bit troublesome to drive all the way to Semenyih as I live near the Damansara Jaya area. Would you recommend a Bpharm at a nearer university, and if so, would a 2+2 programme to another country(like Aussie or NZ) be worth it?

EDIT: Apparently Taylors is also having a programme with Cardiff but i'm not so keen on it as i've been hearing bad things about their Mpharm programme.

This post has been edited by conchpearls: Aug 13 2014, 10:07 AM

the 2+2 mpharm program is no more

I'm doing the program right now too so...


Anyway, Taylor's IS offering a new BPharm program that is homegrown that will include an opportunity to credit transfer to the University of South Australia, but I'm unclear of the details.

AFAIK, Cardiff scrapped their program with Taylor's because of "higher up business" reasons. I'd strongly recommend trying for an MPharm 2+2 program at Notts since it's a really safe option. About the distance, perhaps renting a place nearby would solve that problem. (I live 2 mins away from Damansara Jaya so heh). For now, I would actually recommend a Bpharm program that would allow you to transfer to Aussie/NZ (I think IMU Bpharm allows for transfer to UQ and Otago) since their rankings are quite high up as well. Do note that whether you twin to the UK or Aussie, you most likely will have an issue confirming a job there since what I heard is that both countries are pretty strict with employing foreigners now. (Might need to double check for Australia, but I can say that I'm quite sure that it will be difficult to get a job in the UK)



This post has been edited by Decky: Aug 15 2014, 05:24 PM

WHATTT then i'm assuming the others have scrapped it for similar reasons

Hmm....i'm not counting on Australia or New Zealand to be easy for employment(it will probably be easier than the UK , but it's still a gamble), so I might as well take an Mpharm 2+2 despite the distance(unless there are circumstances like distance too inconvenient/scholarship/fees/etc.). Thanks for the reply

Well you can have a look at Monash which allows you to transfer over to Parkville in your 3rd year.

Hi peeps.
Does anyone know the study path after completing BPharm? I plan to further my studies upon completing BPharm in overseas. I read in internet in which some says it could be MBA or MPhil etc. Need some advices from you all

lol I'm not sure. Notts is always a safe choice though..


I'd really consider Monash too, since Monash' pharmacy ranking is incredibly high up there and I heard from my friends doing pharmacy there that they have access to all the lectures online from the Aussie campus. My own experience is that a twinning program with lousy lecturers is like waiting to give birth; the first two years are excruciatingly painful since I am being forced to self study all this new material and info from textbooks since my lecturers are nearly completely useless to me. (thankfully there were a few helpful ones, but only a handful)

I have some friends in Notts; while they weren't all too happy with their lecturers, some of them were at least still useful AFAIK (as in, you could still ask them questions and they'd understand your questions and give an appropriate reply)

Some of my friends in IMU doing the BPharm program there told me that the lecturers there were not bad and they had that online lecture thing too which they found to be pretty useful.

Haven't heard any complaints from Monash friends tho...

That depends what kind of studies you plan to further in... it's probably best that you decide after you can manage to graduate the Bpharm program successfully. no rush

I'm considering it How do you find the Monash course yourself? Did you transfer to Parkville too or did you opt for doing it fully here?


Yeah, I'll take Monash, IMU and Notts into consideration, but since I haven't even taken the exam yet , I'll confirm my choice later on when I get the results and I can finalise the shortlisting after I get some offers . It seems that my suspicions about Taylors Pharm were correct , my condolences and all the best for your 2+2. Thank you for sharing your experiences and that metaphor haha

Hmm I'm assuming your friends in Notts haven't gone to UK yet, but I wonder if the programme primes you enough that you'll be well-adjusted in the UK in the later years(they'll give you the same quality of teaching, hold you to the same expectations as UK Notts students or train you so that you learn like UK Notts students.....taking into consideration Malaysian cultural/social/economic contexts of course) although from what you've said of your Notts friends I guess they're not as stringent with that part of quality control . The online lectures sound pretty sweet though.

I think no twinning programs will guarantee you the same quality of education as it's UK/Aussie counterpart regardless of where you do it. I haven't heard any of my friends from any other pharmacy school praising their local lecturers yet (the best comments are to say that they (the lecturers) are "okay"). But since it's university level, I guess we are expected to rely heavily on ourselves and tutorials (in taylor's we have some Cardiff lecturers visiting occasionally ans that's when we really benefit from them since we're able to ask them any question under the sun or E-mail them for our queries).

I've only completed year 1 though so I'm not sure just how important lecturers are for your performance since I did pretty well without much help from my lecturers this year even though I studied at the last minute (my classmates did better too). IMO, if you have a strong foundation of knowledge in A levels, first year should be only slightly more difficult.

So perhaps factors such as price, location, accreditation and community should be considered heavily as well.

AFAIK, the notts twinning program has been going on for nearly a decade (I think), so I'm pretty sure it's a course that has withstood the test of time. I've personally met a working pharmacist who graduated from the twinning program and she's doing really well I suppose.

I guess from what I know, the weakness of these twinning programs for us Malaysians isn't so much of an academic factor (e.g. most of my seniors do really well in their exams over at Cardiff, but the feedback we got was that they're knowledge of how pharmacies work (practical knowledge) was lacking.), but more of a practical one since we didn't grow up using their local healthcare system. But apart from that, I'm pretty sure you'll be treated no differently than the locals there and are expected to perform like them or even better than them.

EDIT: double post, woops./

This post has been edited by Decky: Aug 23 2014, 01:52 PM

The Monash course is quite tough by standards. Nope I did not transfer to Parkville.. didn't see the point nor do i have the money haha. We could access Parkville lecture recordings here anyway.

Hi all,

I was wondering why is the master of pharmacy (eg. graduate entry) offered in Australia such as in University of Sydney and Curtin University currently not recognised by the Pharmacy Board of Malaysia? It allows one to register as a pharmacist in Australia but not here Any chances that it'll be recognised in a few years?

This post has been edited by wyx18: Sep 1 2014, 07:07 PM

can i know when to register for aimst bpharm??thnx in advance : )

It's probably still in its infancy stages.. maybe after a couple of years when their first batch of graduates appear..

call them directly?

Im a registered pharmacist from Northern Ireland with pharmaceutical society of northern ireland ( PSNI ). How / where do i check that i can register with malaysian pharmaceutical society (MPS) ?

If you are looking to practice in Malaysia then you would have to look for the Pharmacy Board not the MPS.

their website:

http://www.pharmacy.gov.my/v2/en

Edited.

This post has been edited by sagethesausage: Sep 11 2014, 07:23 PM

@zstan, can I ask you a few things about the pharmacy course?

Is there lots of lab work involved when studying pharmacy? I'm currently in Form 6 and I find that I did not enjoy doing the experiments we had to do for Chemistry and Biology. I kind of find repeating the same thing over and over boring and tedious. Also what kind of content do you guys have to learn? Do you guys have to memorise various drugs' name that are ridiculously long? Is the syllabus very hard? As in, does one need to do revision and study everyday for four years OR can one still slack off, relax and have a study-life balance?

Sorry for the long-ass question, I currently have no direction in life and don't know what kind of job I want to do in the future for the rest of my life. Currently considering pharmacy as a viable option among other choices.

Well I would speaking from my experience in Monash but this should be the same with other unis.

So to answer your question, yes there will be a lot of lab work especially in the 1st 2 years. And they can be really boring at times. Then in 3rd and 4th year there is more of the microbiology and extemporaneous compounding where you make capsules, creams and stuff.

As for content wise you can refer here: http://www.pharm.monash.edu.my/future-stud...se-outline.html

And yes you have to memorise over hundreds of drugs with ridiculous names. And yes, the syllabus is not easy, for Monash la. Well that depends on what you are aiming for. If your goal is to get first class honours then probably otherwise you can still find a balance at the expense of grades or having a gf/bf. but at the end of the day you are dealing with people's lives so if you are not interested at all in that aspect then pharmacy probably isn't your thing.

Thanks for your response. I know I should choose my career based on my own interests but it's kinda hard to build a career out of my interest, which is travelling (Too short to be a flight attendant, dammit).

I'm really unsure of whether I want to pursue pharmacy as a life-long career. I might lack the enthusiasm for it but I actually don't mind saving people's lifes/taking care of their health as I would like to do my part of contributing to the society.

I probably will have no problem with the memorisation parts either since I've been a Straight A's student all my life so I know that one can learn anything as long as he is willing to put in the time and effort into it. It's just that I'm tired of studying after working so hard for all these years.

I don't really know what I want do in the future. I am probably a lazy piece of shit for just wanting an easy life and earning enough money to support my dreams of travelling around the world. Looking back, I should have just accepted the IPG offer, go through a relaxing five years training, and become a teacher, though it would probably end of my dreams of travelling, since teachers earn quite low wages in Malaysia (Except for the years when a teacher already close to retirement, but at that age, does one have the energy to travel anymore?).

Sorry for the rant, it's been bothering me so long that I felt a overwhelming urge to get it off my chest. I'll probably just stop worrying about my ambitions (or the lack of it) and put it aside for the meantime, and focus more on finishing my pre-U first.

This post has been edited by sagethesausage: Sep 12 2014, 12:57 AM