I wanna ask about master in pharmacy. What is the course about, are there and specialties in pharmacy field? I heard that ppl don go for MPharm, they said that BPharm is enough. Isit true? Pls enlighten me =) Thanks

Many pharmacy school in Malaysia do twinning program with UK universities. And there is no BPharm degree in UK anymore, that is why, those twinning program have to accredited at Master level in order to twin with the UK universities.

BPharm is more than enough if you are likely to work in Malaysia, singapore or aus.

But why not go for MPharm if you have that option. You will great experiences in project and learning at Master level, in addition what you get in the end, is a Master degree.

just to point out... at the end of the MPharm programme you do not obtain a master degree, what you get is only a undergraduate bachelor's degree. The name of the program itself is misleading. basically it is named Master Of Pharmacy (MPharm) because of the extensive details in the studies.

-edit - if you decided to go for MPharm, you can later on proceed to go for the pre-registration training in the UK and finally sit for an exam which would qualify you as a pharmacist in the UK. you cant do that for BPharm... MPharm opens up more choices for u in the future

-edit 2 - btw.. if you are thinking of going to IMU to do their MPharm programme, i strongly advise you to stay away from their 3 1/2 years MPharm programme instead go for the 4 years course (not sure if they already have one, go check) because pre-reg training in UK requires you to have a full 4 years course, if you decide to go for it.

This post has been edited by jamc: May 7 2008, 08:45 PM

Undergraduate Master degree actually because you are actually taught at Master levels, have to carried out a research project at Master level and tested for learning and key skills at Master level besides the extensive details in study. Just like some direct 4 years MEng.

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Added on May 7, 2008, 8:54 pmThe first 3 year, you will be taught at undergraduate bachelor degree level, and the final year are accredited at postgraduate master level studies in order to attain the Master degree.

You can stop (or if you achieved not-so satisfactory result) at third year and get something like BPharmSci (IIANM).

This post has been edited by youngkies: May 7 2008, 08:54 PM

better go for Bpharm in USM...they're the best in Malaysia

Whoa, thanks for all the reply. ^^

Well, i'm not a undergraduate now though, but just wondering whats the different between the master degree and bachelor, since well, pharmacy is just pharmacy. Are there any specialties or fields to specialize in?

And I'm in aussie now =D Was thinking of what to put as my 2nd -3rd choice when i tot of pharmacy, and all sorts of questions popped out. xD

From what i heard here, ppl don wanna appoint MPharm students cos they have to be paid more? >.<

aussie now studying anything?

how come you are thinking about second choice in uk? planning to run there?

I'm doing foundations and I never mentioned anything bout UK =)

ohh...is the mpharm mislead me. you didnt mention anything about uk but mpharm is for uk only.

so may i know what is your 1st coice?

bold: not in malaysia. not even UK too, because every pharmacy graduate graduated after 1997 has Master degree anyway. but master degree give you more opportunity if you are going into industrial.

the huge difference is the study key skill and the research project. the project that you will do will be at master level, researching along side the lecturer or phd / post-doc student. in the final fourth year, very little lecturers but plenty of group projects, assignment etc at master key skills.

yeah..i'm taking MPharm in IMU..just finished my first sem..but JPA sent me for 3 1/2 years program.n now there's 4 years program.just started this year.it's quite unfair though..coz we (3.5 years prog) will have to pack our semester 6,7,8 in 1 year n the 4 years prog students will do semester 5,6,7,8 in 2 years..quite stressfull isn't it?n as jamc said,those who take 3.5 years prog cannot register with pharmaceutical society in UK..as for the 1st semester course,if u did ur a-level very well,it wont be a problem to u..it'll be just like a recall of what u've learnt..but a bit disadvantage for those who didn't take bio during a-level..

well, for what i know here in aus, normally they offer the bachelor degree instead of a combined bachelor / masters.

yes master degree in Aus is postgraduate study. 4 years in Aus only get you a bachelor degree.

UK doesnt have BPharm anymore. And as for US, they dont have BPharm and MPharm either, but straight PharmD (doctor in Pharmacy) in 7 years IIANM.

so for what you all know, is it wise to take up MPharm after a BPharm degree here in aus?

if you are to work in aus, or malaysia, BPharm is enough. if you wanted to work in UK, MPharm would be advantageous, if you wanted to work in US, a doctorate degree in pharmacy would be the best to go then. different country require different preferred requirement for their profession.

BPharm is enough but won't MPharm be earning more ? ]

or juz treated the same

i think you'l be paid more, but then again, what do u study in masters? research?

just like any other postgraduate study of master degree.

rather than attending lectures, workshops most of the time and exams in the end like what you do in bachelor degree study, you will do a lot of lecturing the lecturer instead, plenty of assignments, group projects, presentations, case study, self assessment, and research at master level (making novel drugs or delivery system etc).

ah thanks youngkies =) just a quick question, are there too much pharmacists around now? or are there too little? cos i know alot of pharmacist friends, or isit just me lucky to know these bunch =D? and if u were to predict the needs for pharmacist in the next 10 years mayb, what will it be? will it be still in demand? or will it perhaps be overpopulated.

actually you can get involved in industrial, clinical, community,hospital and acdemia just to name a few. sure there will be one that suit you. just go wiki and you will find a lot more informations there.

no one can really predict what will happen in 10 years but looking at the current trend, job prospect for pharmacy is still very good.

whats the difference in working in ur own shop and in hospitals? Do you do the same thing like dispense drugs in hospitals too? or something else? Industrial is something like manufacturing of medicine rite? And I dont get the community part =D But thanks for everyone's info, really really appreciate it.

wow. sounds very tough. so youngkies, thats how the course is going to be assessed at Masters level? Does this mean that if a person could not cope well with it during his/her final year, even though he/she has done well in the 1st 3years, the person will not be able to complete the course? Would be delighted if i know how this MPharm course is assessed though

hehe.. youngkies rocks..

Nope. Nope never too much. Though the amount of people graduate and qualify as pharmacist is quite high every year, but the number of people leaving the job is high too.


Basically the career divided into 3 categories:

1. community pharmacy (so called retail pharmacy in Msia)

2. hospital pharmacy

3. industrial pharmaceutical.

1. Community / retail pharmacy in UK is where the pharmacist dispense medication to the patient presenting with a prescription from a doctor. Besides, the pharmacy might also offer various services such as diabetes testing, blood pressure testing, smoking cessation, health promotion and plenty more. They also make supply to doctor practices or health care centre. As for Msia, they do dispense drug but because usually the doctor clinic is allow to do that, hence pharmacy is under utilised. But mostly they make huge money by supplying drugs to the clinic.

2. Pharmacist in hospital do ward round, medicines management, writing guideline and protocols, plenty to study, pharmacist led clinic (e.g. warfarin, diabetes) and plenty more including dispensing, though most hospitals in UK have robot dispenser.

3. Industrial, yes basically they are manufacturing medicines. But as a pharmacist, you can do as Quality control or assurance officer, manufacturing officer, R&D, specialise in some equipment, even project manager such as developing a new factory in india, or representative of the company making deal with supplier, dealer, pharmacy, or government body or cleaner.

I read that if someone couldn't achieve a satisfactory in the 4th year, they can opt for BPharmSci instead.

Frankly, 4th year was not hard at all. I enjoyed it very much, because we have so much group projects and presentations, they were fun. But it was quite a lot of writing as well, critical writing of some drugs, etc, writing for journal/news/mag column in the first 4 months followed by some exams. For my Uni, if you have passed the exams in first semester (Jan) and pass all the assessments, basically you just have to do the project, submit meanwhile waiting for graduation in July.

Thanks youngkies, oh, din know ur a pharmacist but thanks for all the info =D community and hospital pharmacy seems good =) loads of interactions =D

youngkies,

would you mind to elaborate more on your statement of "the number of people leaving the job is high too"?

as i can see in our country, many choose to get involved in community pharmacy after they graduate provided they have the chance.


it is nice to have one active practicing pharmacist here with us.we are really getting precious unbiased facts here.hehe

I heard something bout WHO saying the ratio of a pharmacist to something is very low. >< forgot what isit bout but the main point is that there are too little pharmacists in the world.

There are actually 5 if you look into it. You've missed out clinical pharmacist and educational pharmacist.

Pharmacists are now heavily being produced because Malaysia is still low in pharmacist. They will separate the dispensing from doctor later. Job prospect will be widen.

Also, if everything allow you, you can do Ph.D in Pharmacy in US & another country which I think is Egypt. Ph.D in pharmacy is higher level than MO (medical officer, normal doctor)

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Added on May 11, 2008, 9:17 amForgot to say, you can go into Ph.D Pharmacy program using B.Pharm. The duration of the course is 5 years.

This post has been edited by jiaxun: May 11 2008, 09:17 AM

Whoa, thanks jiaxun. Anyone knows the info bout pharmacy in aus? Cos I'm not interested in other countries, trying to stick to one place =D Dunno bout pharmacy, my friend who's doing MSc (biomed) says that if he does well in his masters, he can convert it into a PhD? no idea how that works.

Aus, I think they offer until M.Pharm only.
Which Ph.D program is your friend mentioning about? M.Sc (Biomedic)into Ph.D Pharmacy? If this is the question, no, he can't.

nah, Ph.D in biomedicine? but just wanna know isit possible to turn a masters degree to a Ph.D

of course he has to continue study, write thesis and so-on...

particularly in community, the starting salary is high but the threshold is low. a fresh pharmacist can easily get £32k-£39k in community pharmacist as start, and easily reach 45k in the next 6-8 years and £55k after another 10 years. you can consider £55k per annum is the threshold, unless you involved in high managerial position, you won't go further than £55k. therefore many pharmacist when get to £45k per annum at the age around 30++ years old, they rather stay at that pay rate but work lesser hours, e.g. 3 days per week. especially with women, where they can spare plenty of time for their family. or some move out from permanent position to do locum work.

as for hospital, when the pharmacy get to band 8a-b, for abt £40-50k perannum, they work lesser hours (3 and half days per week) and focused in management of the hospital pharmacy, e.g. protocol writing, management of staff, trust meeting etc etc.

so all this extra 2 days left by the senior pharmacists needed to be covered by someone isn't it.

and frankly, the stress in the profession is huge, many couldn't stand it as well. so plenty of pharmacist, earn enough of money, take a year off or so. well, i have met pharmacists that only work 6 months a year. half of a year, they went to thailand or europe for holiday in the winter / summer.

hospital pharmacist is usually called the clinical pharmacist.

and educational pharmacist is people that involved in academia. an option but small portion.

the three that i mentioned is route that you can go into. you can be an educational pharmacist in community, hospital or industrial, so as clinical, some pharmacist in community is really clinical, and industrial esp. those involved in R&D, pharmacology, clinical trials and safety testing.

in US, they are called PharmD, doctorate in Pharmacy.

it is not as direct as that. he has to extend the master research to another 2 years if he perform well his master program. basically it is like upgrade, but you still have to further study, just that you dont have to go all over the applications process and start over a phd year, but straight away continue from where he is now towards a phd degree.

Aus offer to BPharm for basic and Master of Pharm in Aus is postgraduate study, rather than integrated like the UK and europe.

definitely not MSc to PhD in pharmacy, but PhD in PhD in Science is possible. just like most taking MPhil in engineering as start but have the chance to further get to PhD in engineering straightaway.