How to make Admissions in Pharmacy Institutes Student Friendly ?
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" A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on." John F. Kennedy
You may think what we are talking about? Whether it is related to B. Pharm., M. Pharm. or PhD, is it about entrance exams, or is it just about getting admission…..
Well let’s get it clear, here we are discussing a topic which looks simple but the procedure isn’t that simple as it looks. You too may be aware of it or rather might have faced the battle of conquering admission to some institute.
The number of colleges is increasing day by day & so is the increasing number of students choosing the field, this has created chaos in the admission system.
If the student thinks of taking admission he has to face “n” number of entrance examinations. First CET/EMCET/KCET/???CET, then other entrance exams, once they complete their graduation then GATE, entrance for government colleges, private college exams for M. Pharm., and then reaching some college to confirm the admission, once done with your masters then going to the PhD admissions... Well the list seems endless & the student helpless.
So what is the problem? Is this really a critical situation? Is there any solution to the present crises? Do we need some phenomenal changes in the admission system? This is why the discussion has been started here. We really want to know what you all feel about the system. Are you happy about it? Do you want a change in this monotonous procedure? Do you want a simple one stop solution for all your admissions? Is this possible? This is a huge question bank, but it has very few answers. There are lots of unanswered problems in the admission policy which need to be answered.
The major goal of this contest is to generate IDEAS !!! . We belive an IDEA can change many lives.
This discussion is a beginning towards breaking the ice, solving the admission procedure riddle, helping the student reach the destination which he/ she deserves.
This is a chance to show what you have in your mind about the admission procedure & how can it be made student friendly. Is it really needed or back again our old mentality of Chalta hai?
If you really think that the world needs to change, let’s start it right now because it’s now or never!
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INDIAN PHARMA AND NEW PATENT REGIME
INDIAN PHARMA AND NEW PATENT REGIME
To make India a Potentially strong Pharma hub…………..
First, glance at current scenario of Indian pharma industry: The Indian pharmaceutical industry, now a $19 billion industry, has shown tremendous progress. The industry now produces bulk drugs using various technologies & formulations in various dosage forms are being produced in GMP & WHO compliant facilities. India now ranks 3rd worldwide in volume and 14th in value. Also country shows excellent performance in export. Indian exports to more than 200 countries around the globe including the highly regulated markets of US, Europe, Japan and Australia. India exported drugs worth around US$ 8 billion in 2008-09, most of which to the US and Europe, followed by Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa.
Till to make India a potentially strong pharma hub we have overcome the following weakness:
1. Low investments in innovative R&D and lack of resources to compete with MNCs for New Drug Discovery Research and to commercialize molecules on a worldwide basis.
2. Lack of strong linkages between industry and academia.
3. Low medical expenditure and healthcare spend in the country
4. Production of spurious and low quality drugs tarnishes the image of industry at home and abroad.
5. R&D efforts of Indian pharmaceutical companies hampered by lack of enabling regulatory requirement. For instance, restrictions on animal testing outdated patent office.
6.Despite its unique strengths like expertise in process chemistry, availability of abundant and high quality talent, and growing hospital infrastructure, the country accounts for less than
1 per cent of the US$ 130 billion in worldwide spending on pharmaceutical research and development.
Remedies:
1. CRAMS: India, with its inherent competitive advantages and cost-effective manufacturing capabilities, has now become one of the most preferred destinations for Contract Research and Manufacturing Services (CRAMS). India holds huge potential to tap the $20 billion CRAMS business, which is expected to reach $31 billion by 2010. India has opportunity to grab this sbusiness. Pharma multinationals are also exploiting India’s competencies in the field of information technology and its strong and low cost IT skill sets; by setting up centers for their global clinical data management functions in India. At present, a majority of clinical trials conducted in India are for Phase-II and Phase-III. If the government is allow Phase-I clinical trials for the drugs discovered abroad then it will enable the Indian CRAMS industry to provide a wide range of drug discovery services.
2. CRO: On the other hand, contract research also offers significant opportunity to the Indian pharma industry which is becoming a global R&D hot-spot for innovator pharma companies. The global contract research opportunity was $14 billion in 2006 and is expected to reach $24 billion by 2010.
3. To identify opportunities & enablers,
4. To create a road map for Indian pharma industry to realize its full potential and to become globally competitive,
5. Project India as an emerging integrated global Pharma hub,
6. Address global challenges that impact India pharma industry,
7. Global alliances & M&A's.
8. Government should provide infrastructure for talent & research
9. Provide regulatory protection.
10. Give financial incentives to encourage innovations & research.
11. Encoragement of public –private partnership in infrastructure development.
Mergers and Acquisitions in Indian Pharmaceutical Sector:
In the Indian pharmaceutical market there are a number of companies that have entered into merger and acquisition agreements in the context of the global market scenario. These companies would be selling off the non-core business divisions like Over-the-Counter. This is expected to further the consolidation in the mid-tier as far as the pharmaceutical industry in Europe is concerned.
The lack of research and development (R&D) productivity, expiring patents, generic competition and high profile product recalls are driving the mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity in the sector. The key feature of M&A activity in Asia-Pacific has been consolidation of indigenous drug manufacturers, particularly in China and India. The number of mergers and acquisitions in the past months shows that the Indian pharma industry is all set to take on the global markets. Nicholas Piramal acquired 17 per cent in Biosyntech, a Canadian pharma packaging company in July 2005. Similarly, in June 2005, Torrent acquired Heumann Pharma, a generic drug company that was earlier a part of Pfizer. Matrix’s acquisition of the Belgian firm Docpharma was the largest acquisition deal. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has announced its plan for acquisitions in the US.
Indian generic companies
• Are increasingly fighting patent cases on these secondary patents
• Resulting in earlier generic entry
• And hence contributing to affordability of drugs in developed countries
• Indian companies can still continue to market and export generic drugs that are off patent. US, being one of the largest markets for generic drugs, is the ideal destination for Indian companies. In US alone major blockbuster drugs are going off patent in next few years. Further it is estimated that generic market will reach US $ 80 billion in coming few years in value terms and Indian companies stand a good chance of tapping a major chunk of this pie.
Drugs prices in India:
India was regarded as a supplier of low cost generic version of patented drugs to countries, which do not have sufficient manufacturing capacity and to some low income and least developed countries in Africa. If the government does not establish measures to bring prices down, the cost of new drugs remains very high, because patents allows monopoly power and prevents competition. Although least-developed countries are not obliged to grant patents on pharmaceuticals until 2016, these countries do not have the technical and financial capacity, nor the economies of scale to produce generic medicines. TRIPS implementation in India and other manufacturing countries will eventually cut the lifeline of affordable drugs unless safeguard measures are implemented to prevent this. TRIPS agreement does not specify or enforce anything regarding the prices of drugs and national governments are free to enact the measure within the ambit of TRIPS provisions to curb the increase in prices of drugs.
Conclusion:
In short, Indian pharma companies have opportunities to survive and grow in product patent regime as amended Indian Patents Act provides various safeguards against abuse of Patents and monopoly rights. Which will help Indian companies to fight MNC pharma giants in Post TRIPS regime? Flexibilities available under TRIPS like Compulsory License can be effectively utilized by Indian government to protect public health and certain situations of National emergency. So, Indian pharma companies can effectively leverage on the opportunities available and continue to be one of the leading pharma industries in the world.
Thanks
Regards,
Komal Rajendra Nikam,
Final yr B.Pharm,
MGVMs SPH College of Pharmacy, Malegaon, Maharashtra
Komal Nikam
http://www.pharmainfo.net/komal-nikam
Hearties congratulations to all.....
We would like to congratulate each one of you for participating in the contest of generating ideas from young brains. By sharing your ideas you have added value to the contest & also shared your knowledge with many people. Ideas oozed during this fantastic competition and your enthusiasm, ability of thinking about the chanllenges & coming up with the solution you feel should give upliftment & make the admission procedure student friendly was definitely worth taking a note.
Some of the great ideas that which came up during this brainstorming session & can be highlighted are as follows
· To make a central examining body under PCI or Dept. of Pharmaceuticals that will look into making the centralized admission procedure.
· There was also a common suggestion that the central body should compile a list & grade the institutes and universities for improving the quality of higher education.
· There should be efforts for improving the examination system & eliminate the flaws in it, rather an opinion of online examinations seemed to be the voice of many participants.
· You also suggested that there should be a single entrance exam for admission & it should be on all India bases, it should be conducted by the central body & the results should be declared in stipulated time. Maintaining clarity & transparency in the exams is essential too.
· Improvement in the schemes for scholarships, fellowships, freeships and other forms of financial assistance should be given to students who deserve them.
· Eliminating the reservations of all kind & if given should be based on economical conditions & not caste. One world one voice “No quota system please”.
· Apart from a fair admission policy, the recommendations suggested by experts should not remain only on paper; they should be implemented effectively so as to improve the situation.
There were some suggestions for students too that
· The students should gather the proper information & act accordingly. Collect the forms, fill them with due care & submit them within the deadline period to avoid any problems.
· Prepare a list of colleges they are interested & gather their details, admission modalities, requirements (marks cut off, other exam requirements etc) & plan your actions accordingly.
· Discuss the topic of admission & the details with the your teachers & college authorities so as to seek the required information about the admission procedure .
We feel that this discussion was just a beginning towards an attempt to generate inspiring ideas . This is how young minds will get ignited & will become part of movements for pharma vision 2020.
We want you to use this PharmIndia forum as a platform where you can exchange your ideas, share opinions & form united movements which can help in good constructive activities that will help in solving many problems of our profession “Pharmacy”.
And last but not the least please find winners details here . Don't forget to congratulate them in awards page!!!!!!!!!!
the views posted are
the views posted are enlightening and informative and the appreciations are even more encouraging...
Tanya
Great Support !
A BIG thank you to the all paticipants for your time , sharing your ideas and particiapting in this contest . We will announce results in First week of June . Stay tuned....
Pharmainfo.net Team
Renovating Admission In Pharmacy Discipline
“There is nothing more difficult …..than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things”
-Niccolo Machiavelli
The topic for discussion is very much relevant in the present times. Pharmacy education in our country is on the threshold of a makeover. The Pharmacy education should be designed to produce scientifically competent pharmacists who can apply education for the betterment of human lives. For this to happen we must be able to attract right talent so as to provide maximum healthcare services to the society and to the companies. This can happen only when the entry barrier to the profession is optimal so as not to distract right students from selecting it as a career option.
Pharmacy Course In India
There are three types of approved pharmacy courses in India - the Diploma in Pharmacy, a programme that a student can join after the Plus Two course; the four-year B.Pharm. programme that a student can join after the Plus Two course and the two-year M.Pharm. programme that a student can join after successfully completing the B.Pharm. programme. Apart from this there is also the doctoral programme in pharmacy offered by various colleges/universities.
The Pharmacy Council of India(PCI) is a statutory body constituted under the Pharmacy Act, 1948. It is responsible for the regulation of pharmacy education and practice of profession in the country for registration as a pharmacist. At present, there are 497 approved institutions imparting Diploma in Pharmacy to 29,958 students per annum and 276 approved institutions imparting Degree in Pharmacy to 15,815 students per annum.
The Achilles Heel
To conduct a smooth admission to these seats is an herculean task for the administration at the same time the student are prone to exploitation in terms of exorbitant price of prospectus, but also an unwanted burden on the students who have to waste a lot of time and money in entrance examinations. Students have to appear in multiple exams (eg AIEEE, Manipal UGET, BITSAT Exam and many more)to improve their prospects of getting admitted to the ‘right’ course in the ‘best’ institution of their choice. The fee that these institutions charge can prove quite burdensome to at least a section of students and parents, particularly in these times of economic hardship. A random scrutiny of the fee being charged by various institutions for the forms and prospectus revealed that these could often range from a modest Rs.400-Rs.450 to Rs.700-Rs.1,000 and more.
Strategic Plan
The administration has to take some urgent steps to ‘bring in some regulatory mechanism’ to check the unwanted practices going on at the same time reforms are to be taken so make admission student friendly. The front runner for initiating the reforms should begin with PCI.
Greater Role of PCI:
Besides the primary role of deciding the minimum standard of education for qualification as pharmacist.PCI should take up the additional role of Grading of pharmacy colleges (5 star for excellent and 1 star for not so good ).These grading are to be displayed in the PCI website and student can judge before hand before taking admissions.
Also PCI is to inform through various newspaper and website the admission schedule to various colleges and the fees applicable.
Every year under the guidance of AICTE and PCI a body named All India Pharmacy Admission Body(AIPAB) should be setup to conduct a single entrance exam. This should be in line with the existing AIEEE .AIPAB will help in creating a separate identity for pharmacy profession in India in line with Medical.
Admission Procedure:
(i)Admissions to B.Pharma/M.Pharma programs shall be made either through AIPAB or through State Level Tests.
(ii) AIPAB shall be for those institutions that were holding their own entrance tests(like BHU,Manipal etc).
(iii) States may conduct their own entrance tests for admission to institutions conducting to B.Pharma/M.Pharma programs within their States or join the AIPAB. State Level Tests shall however be restricted to fill up seats from the students of their own states only.
(iv) An immediate Shift from the tedious and troublesome form-filling ordeal that students have had to go through(in terms of making DD etc), the AIPAB would provide a "one stop" solution through the introduction of online form, filling .Also admit card and relevant information would be available on- line. This will provide huge cost saving for both parties i.e student and adminstatriton .
Complaint and Grievances Cell:
Finally whatever major reforms do take place in renovating the admission procedure there bound to occur some snags. These problems and doubts should be swiftly handled by the All India Grievance cell(AIGC).An All India Toll free number is to come into existence to handle the arising issues immediately.
Concluding Remarks
The Technical Education system in India and in particular Pharmacy discipline has registered a steady growth. The number of Pharmacy Institutions have recently grown up by leaps & bounds and with this comes the the need of renovation of admission procedure. The need of the hour is surely to make these more student friendly by adopting the latest techniques available like online form filling and in future adopting to online exams too. Adopting these steps will in addition result in up gradation of Pharmacy education at all levels with quality & International accreditation.
Dear Rajesh Ganguly,
Herculean task – waste of money/ time – Grading of institutes - AIPAB - online form filling …… You have presented your opinion in a lucid way…… Good…
Regards
eswar :-)
Regards
eswar :-)
Re: Renovating Admission In Pharmacy Discipline
Dear Rajesh,
"There is nothing more difficult …..than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things" and it seems from your opinion you have prepared your mind to take lead in changing the admission procedure.
Great views & good combination of words. I should appreciate the way you have prepared the idea & presented it here.
The different organizations, governing bodies well it shows that you have good plans to bring in renovation.
Very good job.
how to make admission procedure student friendly?
Hello Friends…this is really an important discussion topic need to be thought with great depth as it is affecting careers of thousands of student who have chosen pharmacy as their profession. I would like to divide discussion topic into 3 parts, which are as follow.
A)Analysis of existing situation and identification of drawbacks.
B)Points where we can improve and the ways to do that.
C)Strategies to achieve the underlying objectives of the discussion.
A)Analysis of Existing Situation
According to the PWC report, In India, we have approximately more than 700 pharma colleges and the number of students studying in these institutes comes around 25000 in B.Pharm. and around 6000 in M.Pharm. So improvement in the existing admission procedures is a vital issue need to be taken care. So, Overhear I must be very thankful to Pharminfo.net and administrators of this discussion competition for allowing me to express my views on such a burning issue which affects the career of thousands of students every year.
Here I am going to use marketing mix analysis technique to analyze existing admission procedures in Pharma colleges:
1)Price (Admission Fees)
AS most of the pharmacy colleges are self-financed or deemed, they are charging very high fees for admission forms or application forms. Most of the institute charges in the range of Rs. 1000-2000, which is very high for the students coming from middle class.
2)Product (Admission Procedures and criteria)
Most of the colleges have hectic and cumbersome admission procedures where students have to undergo exams and interviews even after scoring good rank in GATE.
3)Place (Admission destinations)
Most of the institutes are calling the students to the college, so students have to travel to that particular destination from anywhere in India which incurs a lot of unnecessary cost creating problem for many students.
4)Promotion (Admission Corruption)
Many colleges are giving admission by taking black money from student e.g. let me tell you my practical experience regarding one of the prominent colleges Edit : (college name deleted) . They asked me to send a DD of Rs. 1000 with application form but latter on when I called them they bluntly said me that if you want admission come with Rs.6 lacs. What’s this…a bitter truth or a poor reality?
B)Points where we can improve and how to do it
1)Increasing the authenticity of the information available on the internet regarding admission procedures of various institutes. This can be done if PCI or AICTE come forward to make some firm rules & regulations.
2)Centralization of admission procedure in Pharma institute will lead to increase in standards of admission procedure. Over and above that, it will decrease the unnecessary cost incurred by students due to existing decentralize admission procedure.
3)Formation of student-friendly examination system. The existing exam system for admission needs a lot of mug-up activity without understanding the matter, which leads to development of pharmacists without knowledge about practical aspects. Something like “Jack of everything but master of nothing.”So we need to design a practical kind of admission exams which evaluates students from both theoretical as well as practical aspect.
4)“More than one destination” approach as done by NIPER(S) to increase the accessibility of place of admission exams for students to avoid unnecessary cost of travelling.
5)Prevent the admissions by secondary route. I mean using black money….It will have two advantages. First, Increase the trustworthiness of admission procedure in the mindset of students and save the chance of real aspirants for those seats.
C)Strategies to achieve the underlying objectives of this vital discussion.
To make the admission procedure in Pharma institutes student-friendly in the real sense, we can use the model whereby Central Authority, Pharmacy Colleges and State Education Boards have to work together to come out to a single, real and effective solution.
1)Central Authority:
Indian Government have to form a separate central authority which take care of various issues like centralization of admission procedures, deciding the value based admission exams, prevent the back-door admissions giving chance to needy students, and work in coordination with all the Pharma colleges weather it is government or self-finance and state education boards. It will be a legislative body for monitoring Pharma education in India and will form rules and regulations for the same.
2)Pharmacy colleges:
Government as well as the self-finance colleges has to work together for the student interest. They have to co-operate the central authority and follow the rules and regulations formed by them. Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan said “Universities should impart the education rather than selling it.” They have to take all the necessary steps in the direction of above listed points.
3)State Education Boards
State Education Boards will work as implementing body in the whole system. As it is difficult for the central authority to look into every small aspect of admission procedure, these will assist them and guide them in particular states. They will look into aspects like conduction of admission exams, ethical post admission processing, authentic e-information provided by various colleges of their states etc. It will act as a vital link between central authority and the pharmacy colleges of the state.
So friends, these are my personal views regarding this discussion topic which I have written after very intensive analysis of the situation using theoretical bases and my practical experiences of 6 years of professional education. Right now, I am pursuing MBA in Pharma management from NIPER,Mohali. Once again I would like to appreciate the efforts put into this discussion by pharmainfo.net and the administrators. I would be more grateful and delightful if they can carry out some further practical work regarding the same issue. I wish all the best to the whole team and will like to participate in further related discussions.
Thanks & Regards,
Jatin Boricha
Jatin Boricha
Dear Jatin Boricha
Nicely depicted the strategies and our way of presentation is really appreciable… Its looking coooool. You are dare enough to express your views. Good.
Regards
eswar :-)
Regards
eswar :-)
Naming a college is not right!
Dear Jatin
You named a college as having asked money from you. That naming is not right because the college cannot defend itself on this platform. You must delete those lines or somebody must do it.
Vijaya Ratna
http://www.pharmainfo.net/vijayaratna
http://www.pharmainfo.net/vijayaratna
Re: This is really an important discussion topic
Dear Jatin,
It is really very difficult to blend our experiences, facts & proposed ideas, but you seem to be doing that with ease.
Very good & simple presentation of your views on this topic. Very few people have courage to talk that openly, but that is what is said that, it takes courage to change the world, may it be even with your experiences or idea.
A very good work.
Easy Admission
kajal
Firstly, I would like to thanks all the team members of pharma for giving me such big opportunity.
Myself Kajal Patil, I am here to present a wonderful topic “How to make admission in pharmacy field student friendly”
Till now the admission in pharmacy field is consider to be very lengthy, costly and diligence process. The main reason for this is the awareness of students about the process. It will overcome by taking the seminars, giving information through television, internet, and newspaper.
Suppose one student thinks to take admission in pharmacy field he / she have to face many of the entrance exams like CET/EMCET/KCET. After giving this exam he/ she were not conforming about admission, why? I think because of partiality, less seats availability, caste, management quota etc. To overcome these problems the numbers of seats should be increase by complete removing management quota.
For taking admission student have to pay at least 250 Rs for one form in one college. Then also admission was done on the basis of caste, status instead of the knowledge, performance, skill etc. For this I think there should be only one separate centralized exam for pharmacy. Admission process should be centralized and done on the basis of merit list.
The chance should be given to fill the preference form and all this should be done online to reduce the coast for traveling. Sufficient time should be provided and allotment list should be display as early as possible.
The admission in M-pharm was done on the basis of GATE score. Many of the students don’t know about the exam pattern for GATE, date of submission of form and process for submission. All this should be explained by the teachers or principal of college. The separate exam should be conducted for separate subject. Each student should be applicable for only one subject, so that equal change was given for every student.
The prospectus should contain the information regarding college , department available , facilities, rules of college availability of other course so that before taking admission in college student can think about his future. Interview should be taken during admission without partiality. There should be a chance for changing the college even after taking admission. The Ph.D. the common entrance test all over the India should be conducted. I think the on line exam is more beneficial then written.
While giving admission in any degree the overall performance should be consider. All the information regarding admission process should be clearly known by the student by means of conducting seminars. Student must be guided at Wright time by Wright way, which may helpful to student for taking admission in well college and of own choice. The rules for paying all fees at a time should be stop which might be not possible for every student. The donation fees and partiality all this things are prohibited.
Thanking you.
Kajal Patil.
S.P.H.College of Pharmacy
Malegaon (Nashik)
My page - http://www.pharmainfo.net/Kajal
kajal
Dear Kajal
Your views are something broad....
Good.
Using television is new from your end.
Your stress up on Caste, Status vs Knowledge, Skills is appreciable..
Regards
eswar :-)
Regards
eswar :-)
Re: Easy Admission
Dear Kajal,
You have given us good overview of what happens in admission procedure & what should be done to avoid the problems.
It was something different to read it "Wright" or "Right” .
Student friendly doorway for pharmacy institute
KOMAL PATIL
Respected Sir/Mam,
Firstly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the pharma team for giving me this apportunity.
Getting admission in pharmacy field just look simple but actually the procedure is not that simple as it looks, because of following resons:
1. Now a day a number of pharmacy colleges increases, which leads to increase in complexation in the admission process.
2. Awareness among the society about the pharmacy field. Some people knows pharmacy as just running medical store.
3. If any one want’s to enter in pharmacy field, He/She has to pass various exam like CET, GATE etc. and even if get qualified it will not satisfy the merit students because points like sex, caste, local / Nonlocal will be considered while getting admiossion.
Here I have tried some of ways to make the pharmacy admission student friendly.
1. Seminar on admission procedure should be conducted in Jr. colleges.
2. There should be only one online entrance exam. Entrance exam should be different for various faculties in M. pharm.
3. Exam should be held in all the registered colleges of pharmacy in India.
4. Date of release of forms as well as last date of submission should be given as soon as result is declaer.
5. Forms and Prospectous should be easily available, because students has to spend lot of time as well as money for getting forms and Brouchers.
6. Pharmacy Council of India should release a journal having list of all colleges of pharmacy in India according to grade which gives choices for students.
7. Journal should contains detail address of colleges because I have practical experience to tell you truth that infront of me there are various example of my classmates who fill the college name, considering it was situated in Nashik, but actually it was somewere else.
8. Admission procedure should be merit oriented and Management seat have to be reduced. So it leads to increase reputation of pharmacy field.
9. Online information of various newly started courses should be given as early as possible. New course such as MBA in Pharmacy is started, but till now no great information about it will be known to many of us.
10. Online guideline for admission process should be given in a simple language so every student can understand it.
11. Student who was apply for one field should not be able to apply for another one. It lead to decrease no. of vacant seats.
12. No interview should be taken during admission because it gives chance for some % of partiality, which definitely creates problem for the students.
Learning is a continous and dynamic process, and I have a thought to share with you:
A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is ideal.
Thanking u ,
Yours truly,
Komal V. Patil.
T.Y.B.Pharm,
MGV’s Samjshree Prashandada Hiray College of Pharmacy,
LVH Marg, Malegaon Camp,
Malegaon-423105
Dist-Nasik, Maharashtra.
My page:
http://www.pharmainfo.net/komal
k.v.patil
Dear Komal Patil
Points depicted by you are esay to apply and very useful to the students....
Seminars in colleges, Journal, Online information .... are appreciable....
Regards
eswar :-)
Regards
eswar :-)
Re: Student friendly doorway for pharmacy institute
Dear Komal,
You have given us a good overview into the problems of admission to pharmacy & the ways to solve it.
You are right in saying that the information should be provided through seminars. In my personal experience taking help of our teachers and networking with seniors will really helpful in getting the "real" information.
Saying it in your words, “A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.” So try and have the knowledge that is useful & spread that words of wisdom to all so that others to get wise.
You got very good way of expressing your opinion at this young age. Good job!
'How to make Admissions in Pharmacy Institutes Student Friendly?
Dear pharma friends,
Warm welcome to the new comers who are entering in to the pharmacy world and all the best to out going persons who are going to work in various pharma organizations. First of all I want to convey my regards to pharmainfo.net for conducting this competition which gives more information about the pharmacy admissions, which will be beneficial to the new comers who wants to join in various pharmacy courses.
Now here I want to share my views about the pattern of admissions in pharmacy institutes which are student friendly. First pharmacy course starts from Diploma in pharmacy, Bachelor of Pharmacy, Master of Pharmacy, Doctor of Pharmacy (newly introduced 6 years course) and Ph.D. (Doctorate of philosophy)etc.
Admissions into B.Pharm course:
After qualifying the E-CET examination the diploma holders will directly enter into the second year B.Pharmacy through E-CET. But the drawback here is the diploma holders are missing the basics of physical pharmacy & organic chemistry (mainly stereochemistry which is the most important subject for NIPER). If they don’t know the basics of organic chemistry and physical pharmacy how they will understand the related subjects mainly medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutics which are most important for the GATE. My suggestion is either to make these subjects available in the diploma course or these subjects have to be included in their second year B.Pharmacy.
After getting the ranks from various competitive examinations like EAMCET, KCET and other examinations conducted in various states and depending up on the order of merit they will get seats in various pharmacy colleges.
But the drawback here is even though the results are coming earlier, the educational board is not responding immediately for conducting the councelling for admission into the graduate courses. Because of this reason in some universities they are loosing one academic year. If the persons are joined lately in the colleges, the time schedule is also extended and the same pattern is followed up to final year. This is bad situation for the out going batch. My explanation here is GATE examination is conducting every year in the month of February and results are coming in the month of March. Final academic examinations are conducting in the month of April to August depending up on the universities. But the application notification for admission into M. Pharm course is giving in the month of June. Even though the students are applying for the PG course, they haven’t completed their B. Pharm degree because of the late councelling. Even if they have completed their examinations, they are not getting the B. Pharm degree certificates which are necessary during the councelling. So my suggestion is to make councelling as early as possible, and there by they will complete their degree and get the certificates intime.
Conductance of the GATE examination and admissions into M.Pharm course:
The GATE examination should conduct most probably in the month of April instead of February. Because most of the subjects included in the GATE examination will be covered in the B. Pharm final year second semester. So many of the students can’t complete their syllabus and loose some marks and at last loose their ranks.
Gate syllabus is same for all the students who are pursuing their degree in India. But the B.pharmacy syllabus is different in different states. The Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has to think about this and make the syllabus same through out India. GATE examination is a national wide examination and giving the ranks national wide. Even if the students get good rank in GATE, is unable to understand why he is unable to get the seat in other states as per his choice. If the universities are not allotting the seats as per the GATE what is fun behind conducting the GATE examination in national wide.
One more draw back is even though the students get good rank in the GATE, they can’t get admissions directly in some colleges because they are conducting their own entrance examination. Some universities are giving seats to the students based on the B.Pharm percentage and GATE rank. My suggestion to PCI is to conduct the unique admission system through out the India.
Because of the conductance of various entrance tests by various universities at various states after getting the GATE ranks, the students will lose economically to buy applications. In this case if the examination will be conducted at the same time at various universities, the student is unable to judge which examination is best and for which college he should attend the exam.
My suggestion is councelling should be conducted online through out India. In this first make the list of colleges that are offering M.pharm course along with the number of seats. The list of colleges that should be available to students along with their Gate score cards. This will helpful for the students to enquire about the colleges which are having good facilities and faculty.
Most of the Private colleges are selling their seats to the students who didn’t have the GATE score as well as good degree percentage mainly on “first come first in” basis. This will reduce the originality of the pharmacy course.
Presently everybody is thinking about the entrance examination for admission into M.Pharm course. For the year 2009-2010, the PCI is expected to take the charge for conducting the entrance examination. But the PCI didn’t specify any information regarding the entrance examination. So I request the PCI on behalf of B.Pharm students to specify information regarding the entrance examination at the earliest. Every body’s mind is thinking that whether the entrance examination will be conducted either through out India or in individual states.
PCI has to take charge to maintain the unique fees for all the colleges including universities and private colleges.
Allowing the GATE qualified candidates to attend NIPER entrance exam is good.
Regarding the stipend to GATE rankers:
The main objective of the admission system, to make the order of best colleges depending up on the establishment, facilities,faculty and reputation of the organization. This order should be available to the students who really wants to join in PG courses. The colleges approved by PCI and AICTE, the GATE rankers are not getting the stipend. So my suggestion is PCI has to provide the availability of stipends to the GATE rankers.
Regards
Sreenivasa Rao. N.
Research Scholar,
College of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Andhra University.
Srinu
Dear Sreenivas
Nice presentation, Your step wise discussion is good.
Your words are near to reality....
Regards
eswar :-)
Regards
eswar :-)
very good
http://www.pharmainfo.net/vijayaratna
Dear Srinivasa Rao
Your ideas on M.Pharm admissions, especially about ranking colleges are very good.
Vijaya Ratna
http://www.pharmainfo.net/vijayaratna
Re: How to make Admissions in Pharmacy Institutes
Dear Sreenivasa,
Your way of communicating & ease in writing was really very good.
It shows up that you have thought a lot over the existing procedure & added points on how to eliminate the loopholes in it.
Listing of colleges & grading them is really a big task, but if done will really benefit all students.
Very good opinion.
ADMISSIONS IN PHARMACY STUDENT FRIENDLY
Two years of hard work of sincere students cannot go waste with the mistakes committed by the administrative system.
For some of the students the surfeit of admission offers would be perplexing but some of them won’t even have a chance to be admitted into their favourite courses.
Each and every pharmacy student knows how the admissions are going on at present. The seats are allotted to the candidates who are even not eligible
According to my views the following changes are needed to to make the admissions student friendly:
1. The recruitment process apart from being fair and equitable should also ensure that the right type of persons join the courses.
2. This improves the quality of education system which is dependent on the quality of persons getting into it.
3. There shouldn’t be any reservations like caste based and women reservation because the reservation had already been given on the basis of economic crisis.
4. Some objectives should be followed like:
i)to select aspirants who are capable of continuously acquiring knowledge and skills.
ii) to find aspirants who are temperamentally and motivationally suited.
.
My Page : http://www.pharmainfo.net/kamrutha
My Blogs :http://www.pharmainfo.net/blog/kamrutha
My Team Blogs :Login or register to post comments
Dear Amrutha
No reservations concept is the most important iossue being discussed by mny of the students...
If U have spent some more time, U may be submitted few more useful suggestions....
Regards
eswar :-)
Regards
eswar :-)
Re: ADMISSIONS IN PHARMACY STUDENT FRIENDLY
Dear Amrutha,
You have raised a good issue to stop all kind of reservations. Thats really well worth point to note . Did you realised a word limit of 1000 words ? If you used it properly, we could have got more brilliant idea from your end.
Well Begun Is Half Done-
Pharmacy in India is not recognized as a very much attractive course and usually is opted by students as a second choice after they are not able to make it to Medical colleges or good engineering colleges. Very few of them choose it as the first option. This is the harsh reality which we all know but we don’t want to accept.
One must think that a profession and the stream which is so much reputed in western and other countries, why it does not have that much reputation and status in our country, because nothing is regulated and systematic in this course right from the beginning that is Admissions, syllabus, subjects to be taught, requirements for colleges and for faculty members and even examinations, nothing seems to be well administered. several governing bodies have hand in the procedures but there is no control or set code and if there is, it is only in papers.
If we talk about the admissions all the pandemonium starts there only:
Several states, several colleges in each state and different way of selection in different types of institutions ie- Private and Government Institutes. Even several accreditation and standardization authorities with more than one regulatory bodies, all these make such a chaos which leaves students just evaluating, analyzing and finally Guessing for their own future and career.
“Does this institution has AICTE approval? M.Pharm/ B.Pharm here is approved by PCI or not? Will it be approved in future? To whom I should ask all this......?” All these are common questions which come to mind of Students and their Guardians at the time of admission but most of the times they get insufficient and also wrong information.
First of all there is a high requirement of only one governing body which will give approval to different Pharmacy institutes and also which will set all the procedures and standardization criteria regarding admissions, courses and examinations etc.
It is good that PCI is making some moves towards this side but it must become more authoritative and for all the Pharmacy institutions the PCI approval should be mandatory and that should be done on basis of facilities, infrastructure, Teaching staff and other strict criteria. There should be one website on which one can click and get all the information about various institutions, their recognition and affiliations, courses and Specializations etc.
Now it comes to the criteria of selection of the students in various colleges, let us start with UG, In most of the states there is no separate entrance exam for Pharmacy colleges, generally it is with Medical entrance or Engineering entrance. All this decrease the dignity and importance of the course and moreover makes the procedure long, confusing and cumbersome.
At PG level too students are always in severe tension because of no common process for admission at central or even state level. They have to apply for different institutes as and when they get information but If any how they miss to read advertisement for call of applications in the news paper than they get only one option and that is to repent.
The procedure for application in various institutes is again troublesome. Application fee and time taken for that, Separate entrance exams, results declared late and also in all this you cannot afford to miss any institute because you never know where you may get the chance.
All India basis GATE examination has only remained as the way to get the stipend and again the GATE is not solely for Pharmacy in fact it is mainly for engineering institutions. Different institutes have their own criteria and preferences. It is good step that for PG a separate procedure is going to be implemented. But we can only pray that this will bring Uniformity, Regulation and will stop the mental exploitation of students at the time of admissions.
I strongly believe that there should be only one online entrance exam at all India level for only pharmacy colleges at both UG and PG level. This step will help the interested students to get information about every college at one place and the burden of applications to be sent to different colleges would be minimized also problems like date clashes for entrance tests and long wait to different results would be removed.
At the UG level the criteria of selection should be the knowledge gained by the aspirant at the post secondary level.
But for PG the same must not be followed and the selection should be based on practical approach-
There should be a test which should cover 60% part but remaining 40% should be kept for achievements by the students at the B.Pharm level and to standardize this grading should be given to different classes of activities for example Paper Presentation in a national level conference can be regarded as A grade activity and eventually marks allotted according to the overall grades secured.This 40% would also include the marks got in the B.Pharm. Here again some standardization procedure like Average Relative Grading system is required to compare marks of students from different universities.
All the government and private institutes approved by the same one Governing body ( PCI ) should be bound to follow the same procedure and Merit list.
Regarding Phd course One interesting fact is that in few institutions intake capacity is much higher than they can afford like some institutes in M.P. and Rajasthan. This is reducing the quality and deteriorating the overall distinction of this degree. This should be stopped and even the Phd programs should come under the umbrella of PCI as the sole Governing body.
Right now there is not any set procedure for Phd programs because it varies college to college that on what basis they want to select the candidates but it should be solely on the criteria of work done and Experience gained till the Masters degree and after that.
Average Grading should be the scrutinizing procedure and these programs should be supported by Industry Academic Collaboration. Like the QIP program is there for PG, it should be there for Phd level also.
This topic is such a burning issue that a lot can be written and discussed about it but the need of the hour is to take action for evaluation, change and implementation because than only the scenario will reverse from "Student Frightening to Student Friendly".
Piyush Kaushik
M.Pharm I year
Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Manipal ( 576104 )
work Hard get the reward
Dear Piyush Kaushik
When implemented, it is FULL DONE....
Common questions being faced by students are presented by you...
Pharmacy was considered as secondary option by most of the students and also the seats for PG nad Ph.D. are being mantained more than their affordable range....and so on...
Some real points were mentioned clearly...
Regards
eswar :-)
Regards
eswar :-)
Re: Well Begun Is Half Done
Dear Piyush,
I won't be able to write better that what you have concluded, "This topic is a burning issue that a lot can be written and discussed about it but the need of the hour is to take action for evaluation, change and implementation ".
It was pleasure reading those words, a very good opinion & more importantly presented in a effective manner.
is the topic being provided a real problem?????????????
Sorry people I don’t think that the procedure for the admission in Pharma College is not friendly or complicated. As problem lies somewhere else. Let me tell you about the problem that pharmacy education facing is
•Quality of the education that one is getting in the “n” number of the pharmacy colleges mushrooming in the country at the moment.
•And the regulating bodies are unable to stop the blooming of these intuitions. These institutions are more or less commercial activity for the owners & nothing else.
•Problem of the regulation & control of pharmacy education in the country which is done by AICTE & PCI. There are always some clashes between these bodies on the issue of regulation of the pharmaceutical education in the country.
•Problem is of outdated syllabus of pharmacy education whether you talk about D.Pharm, B. Pharma, & M.Pharm. Students are compelled to study the outdated subject matter which would not help them to get adapted to the things which are required in industry.
•Problem is of negligence of the govt. towards the plight of the status of pharmacy education. As the pharmacy students in India are considered as mere chemist who would prescribe the medicine at the medicine store & nothing else. & if we see the conditions in abroad which is quite different. There pharmacy students are considered as the advisers of the doctors & patients & for the people living in society as hospital, clinical pharmacists & community pharmacists.
•Problem is of perception in the minds among the people about the pharmacy education. It is always considered as the 2nd tired option for the medical students. It is very seldom the first choice for the students who would pass out of the schools.
•Problem is of awareness level among the students about the pharmacy education &pharmaceutical industry.
•Problem is of respect of the Pharma degree holders. It can only be improved if the status of the work that these people performed is improved.
•Problem is of the quality of the research infrastructure that we people have. Because that lead to migration of our Pharma brains to the west.
•Problem is of limited academic –industry interaction which leads to meaningless & unneeded research in the academic intuitions. As they would come out with those products which are not required by the needy people. This is not the case in the west as research is done in accordance with the needs of the people of the respective countries.
•Problem is of the quality of the faculty that we people have. Faculty is seldom very motivating for the students.
Yes we can make people to choose pharmacy as the profession by
•By having good & resourceful institutions with permission from the AICTE.
•PHARMACY EDUCATION should start right with the pharmacy common entrance test (PCET) for the admission in the B.Pharm.
•Students should be made aware about the pharmaceutical education in the schools. Faculties & lecturer should take interactive session with the students on a regular basis. That would help the students to have opinion about the pharmacy education.
•PCI can arrange the pharma quiz at the school level. AICTE can start pharma scholarship for the merit students in the pharmaceutical institutes.
•PCI should start a helpline in the admission days to sort out the queries of the students regarding pharmacy education. They can carry out the career planning for the students.
•Institutes can collaborate with news channels to have a weekly program for the students to spread awareness about the pharmacy education.
•Institutes should start the separate course for the clinical & community pharmacists.
•No diploma course would be run by the by the intuitions. & no entrance test would be there for the admission in the diploma. It should be included in the courses ITI or polytechniques run by the Govt.
•No GATE for the admission of the M.Pharm admission, merit list will be prepared in accordance to the centrally held examination tests for the students at the B.Pharm level. The students will be given the choice of the choosing institute of their choice. Before getting admission an interview round should be held.
•Students should be given projects needed by the industry. He should be allowed to complete the project both in industry & institute.
•Placements prospects should be brighten up with this type of healthy industry interaction
•PhD should be awarded on the basis of the student’s, his M.Pharm project (its novelty ,importance , quality of the results), publications , patents & record throughout the academic life.(in the order as given )
One thing that I would love to tell you people that making examination easier is not a solution rather that will further dilute the quality of the pharmacy education in the country.
Re: is the topic being provided a real problem?
Dear Vikas,
It's good to see someone going against the changes in admission procedure. You are right ! Why fix it if it not broken...
I am very much glad to read a different opinion .
Hello sir, Firstly i would
Hello sir,
Firstly i would like to thank pharmainfo.net and Mr.Eswar and Lakshya untwal for organizing such an enlightening online contest which is showing a rattling response.
I'm here to present my view on the topic - 'How to make Admissions in Pharmacy Institutes Student Friendly?'
Let me first of let you know about the various programs in the pharmacy profession
1. Firstly B.pharmacy
2. Secondly M.Pharmacy
3. Ph.D
There are many pharmacy colleges in India under the control of PCI (Pharmacy Council of India). For the admission into B.pharm there are various admission tests like KCET (in Karnataka), EAMCET (in Andhra Pradesh) etc., like this statewide exams were being conducted by the different state governments. Likewise some of the colleges were conducting exams of their own as in for the admission in M.pharm. What the main drawback in following such a procedure? Such examinations were not making the merit students satisfied, because various issues are being considered like CASTE, RELIGION, SEX, LOCAL/NON-LOCAL etc., My view for this problem is--
- Why don't the PCI conduct a
CENTRALIZED ENTRANCE EXAM FOR B.PHARM as well as M.PHARM as well further HIGHER COURSE (Ph.D)? The advantage of this is that, Filtering of candidates by the LOCAL/NON-LOCAL issue will not be there.
- An act should be passed by the government for LIMITED RESERVATIONS. So that everyone will be given equal preference.
- The management seats have to be reduced or removed so that even the merit student who is unable to afford money for the admission through management seat can join it. This can be achieved by providing or increasing the college fund by PCI.
- We know that IIT exam qualifiers are highly levelheaded candidates. So, as it is for both mathematical and biological stream, Why this B.Pharm, M.pharm courses are not included in IIT admissions? . By doing this we can bring out most endowed pharmacists and all the merit student will get advantage of it.
- In case of M.Pharm there different branches. Previously GATE exam was conducted for its admission and the admissions for all the branches will be filled by those qualifiers. But the number of seats is very less. So, in order to come out of this problem there is only one option what I feel is, By increasing the number of seats.
- As the course is completed semester wise and the exams were conducted accordingly, by conducting entrance exam after completion of each semester (except 1st year B.Pharm as there is yearly exam) there will be chance for the interested candidates to seek admission in the professional course.
- It would be better if the PCI have the tie-ups with other reputed colleges and organizations of all the countries or with the pharmacy councils of all the countries because it would help the Indian pharmacists in getting the recognition as a pharmacist internationally so that, there is no need to attend any other tests of practice at other countries.
- In case of admission into Ph.D if the Grade-I exams (CIVIL's exam) pattern is followed then the correct justice can be done to the merit candidates.
- It would be better if the PCI announces special schemes for all the meritorious students who were unable to afford for studying.
Hope the above mentioned views may bring up change in the Pharmacy profession
when implemented and the students can come out of all the pebbles that they
faced in the antiquity.
Regards,
Bhavani prasad.V
B.Pharm 1st year,
RAGHU COLLEGE OF PHARMACY,
Dakamarri,
Visakhamatnam.
http://www.pharmainfo.net/bhavani-prasadv
Bhavani Prasad
http://www.pharmainfo.net/bhavani-prasadv
Re: I'm here to present my view
Good overview about the topic.
Overall a good opinion. There is no need to thank us, we are just the moderators for this contest & have no other role.
Trust me your opinion made it very interesting to read though it had some grammatical errors, but that is ok. You should continue contributing your views.
Excellent job my dear considering that you are very young in this field!!!
How to make Admissions in Pharmacy Institutes Student Friendly ?
How to Improve Pharmacy Education?
I would like to mention about some points related to the admission procedure in INDIA (not only of pharmacy but may be of any field like Engineering, Medical, Architecture, etc) to improve our education system.The admission process should involve;
• Centralized Admission Procedure (CAP) or Single window admission procedure
• One online entrance examination for all Pharmacy colleges in India (Only one for a D. Pharm, B.Pharm., M.Pharm. and Ph.D. individually)
• Uniformity in course structure of all the universities throughout India and it should be equivalent to that of abroad universities.
• Unexorbitant fee structure and scholarships for economically backward class
• Less than 5% Management Quota
• Reservation should be only for economically backward class and for students from remote places. No reservation shall be done on the basis of caste
• Only one committee for looking after all the matters of admission procedure throughout the India including students
We had very closely monitored this whole admission procedure to B. Pharmacy and M. Pharmacy courses in Maharashtra state in the year 2006-07. We filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) case against all the Pharmacy colleges in MS with the help of Forum Against Commercialization of Education (FACE). The result was centralization of all admission procedure for both the courses, significant reduction in fees, etc. Students had given only one entrance for admission to these courses. FACE is a non-political and non-profit based community in Mahrashtra state and as a member of this forum, I would like to invite all the students to join hands for preventing the commecialization of education in India. Most of the time student has to attend the interview at the particular college or university. The dates of the interview may overlap from one college to another and student has to visit each place for it giving mental, physical and economic disturbances. This can be avoided through CAP program. Students will fill out the preference forms according to their requirement for a college. The whole admission produre schedule shall be displayed in local as well as national news. The CAP program reduces the burden on students as well as on their parents.
One of the reasons that most of the colleges or universities conduct their separate entrance is non-uniform course structure. This can be avoided by making syllabus acceptable to all colleges or universities. The online test will remove the possibility of bias and thus the exam will be transparent. The fees for the particular courses shall be decided on the basis of the facilities provided by a respective college or university. The fee committee shall be formed to decide this including student member. Provision of reservation and scholarship for the economically backward class shall be made possible and there should be no reservation on caste basis. The committee shall be comprised of members nominated from the academics and from students. We shall not anticipate the government to form this committee as they are not direcly involved in this process. The colleges like NIPER and some deemed universities shall not be considered under centralization as they have some special status and importance.
At last, I would like to thank Dr Vivek Korde, President, FACE and Professor Milind Wagh, Secretory, FACE for doing such a nice admission friendly process. I would also like to invite all the students to be a part of this activity. Only we students shall be responsible for doing justice with the education and we should not tolerate any commecialization in education field.
Always remember “Education is the Right of Every Individual”.
'No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it. We need to see the world anew.' - Albert Einstein
Sachin Ramrao Patil
Member, FACE
M. Pharm. Scholar
Department of Pharmaceutical Technology (Formulations)
National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER)
S.A.S. Nagar, Mohali, Punjab- 160 062, India
Sachin Ramrao Patil
M. Pharm. Scholar
Department of Pharmaceutical Technology (Formulations)
National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER)
Sector-67, S.A.S. Nagar, Mohali
Punjab-160 062, India
sachin_prits@yahoo.co.in
09256091
good idea
http://www.pharmainfo.net/vijayaratna
Dear Mr. Sachin
Your information is very interesting. If this can be done on all India basis it would be very good.
Vijaya Ratna
http://www.pharmainfo.net/vijayaratna
Re: How to Improve Pharmacy Education?
Dear Sachin,
I am happy to see your input & to learn about your experiences.
Please keep spreading the power of postive work .
Lakshya
comments edited by Phamainfo.net Team
An opportunity can make miracles happen
An opportunity can make miracles happen. Firstly, I thank the team for giving me this opportunity.
There is quite a lot of scope for improvement for the present system of admission of students into the various courses of pharmacy. There can be a system of admission without flaws, and which can help a larger section of students benefit from it, and also prevent them from facing flawed results.
Basically, the examination pattern is to be closely looked at.
ü The entrance exams are the gateway for any student to get into a college and pursue a course that he/she wishes to. These are of utmost importance. So, the first way to make the system of education a student-friendly one is to provide a hassle-free exam.
ü As the student is already pre-occupied with the preparation of exam, it would only be better if the questions provided in the exam are unambiguous and with no mistakes
ü Next, the time gap between the exams and results, if considerably reduced, provide more time for the student to gauge his/her performance and he/she can take the right decisions as to which college to join.
ü The colleges that are to be listed during the counseling must all be registered under the PCI [Pharmacy Council of India]. As soon as the results of the entrance exam are released, the PCI must also release a journal having a list of all the registered colleges of pharmacy in India. This helps the student to have an idea as to what are the choices available to him.
ü For those who haven’t cleared the 1st All-India entrance examination, after the completion of the counseling, if a second exam is similarly conducted, then it helps to fill in the unfilled seats and also many of the students who are capable but were unable to perform well in the first attempt would get a chance. This also avoids the loss of one precious year in the life of the students due to long-term. Though this method would prove to be a costly investment, it would open the doors of bright futures for many thousands of students.
ü The colleges are ranked based on the experience and ability of the faculty, the amenities and facilities available, the caliber of the students that pass out form that institution and these details are published in state journals, so that the student has a clear idea when he/she chooses a particular college.
ü Once the counseling of the second exam is also done, the colleges must immediately display the list of candidates who have filled in those seats, both in the college as well as online, so that the student can easily get to know where he/she is to go.
ü Admission procedure should be merit oriented rather than giving preference to cast. This would enhance quality education.
ü Regular updating of the college rankings must be done, so that the fresh batch of students wanting to join colleges must have an up to date information about the present performance of the respective colleges.
ü Only those colleges with the required faculty and all facilities must be given the permission to start having m.pharm as well as PhD departments.
ü A common entrance exam into pharmacy could be conducted all over .India. It could be online or written, which could be found out in the application form itself. Since the exam applies to students of different boards, like cbse, state. Etc, common topics should be selected for the exam. Centers for conducting the exam should be widely spread. Covering all states.
ü The students should be able to have access to the list of pharmacy colleges in India, in the order of their ranks, preference should be given to the students, in the order of merit, for selection of college, it could be done zonal wise. Suppose a student writes exam in the south zone & scores good marks, he/she could be allowed to choose any college from that zone, depending on the availability of seats.
V.B.S.Aishwarya
B.Pharm (1st year)
Raghu College of Pharmacy
Visakhapatnam.
Re: An opportunity can make miracles happen
Dear Aishwarya,
You have tried to represent your opinion in a good manner, the language is good & so is the presentation.
PHARMACY ADDMISSIONS……………
PHARMACY ADDMISSIONS……………
Dear Sir,
I would be very thankful to pharmainfo.net for organizing such another nice compitition.According to my opinion admission procedure should always be student friendly not for Pharmacy but for all courses.
For the admission in B.Pharm/ M.Pharm. Different states having different criteria or entrance tests.
Let’s start from B.Pharm, In Maharashtra admission for B.Pharm are totally based on the basis of Common Entrance Test (CET) merit but they does not give any weightage to H.S.C. marks, which is very unfair because sometimes those students score good marks in H.S.C, they may not score in CET .To avoid this there should be equal weightage given to CET & H.S.C. (i.e. 50% CET +50% H.S.C.) & the exams should be online.
Also the schedule of examination, admission procedure should be declared in all news papers as well informed to all Jr. Colleges, which may be very helpful to the students & there should be proper training given to the Jr.college teachers regarding the admission process, so that they can guide students, which are very new regarding these procedures viz. online filling, submission of forms, selection of colleges etc.
This (2009) is the last year of GATE for the admissions to M.Pharm till they have not declared on what basis the admissions will be given to M.Pharm from next year. In Maharashtra CET is conducted for the admissions in M.Pharm, also they consider GATE for the admissions ,instead of that My suggestion is to conduct on line common entrance test all over India for the admissions in B.Pharm/M.Pharm/Ph.D. but they also give some weightage for the previous degree marks.
The advantage of online CET examination & admission procedure is that it makes admission process faster, save time & money. Form fees, which are not less than 500 Rs. /institute which can be minimized due to online admission process. Most of the examinations having their centers in Metros/District , due to online examinations students need not travel long way which ultimately save their time, money……Which may rescue the students from the endless list of no of entrance tests.
Once again I would be very thankful to Pharmainfo.net & all judges of competition to provide me such a nice platform to sharing my thoughts with others.
Thanking u ,
Yours truly,
Komal Rajendra Nikam
T.Y.B.Pharm,
MGV’s Samjshree Prashandada Hiray College of Pharmacy,
LVH Marg, Malegaon Camp,
Malegaon-423105
Dist-Nasik, Maharashtra.
Komal Nikam
http://www.pharmainfo.net/komal-nikam
Re: PHARMACY ADDMISSIONS
Dear Komal,
Online test & centralized admission. That's well said.
You have taken good efforts in explaining the change you want to see in the process. Good opinion.
No need to thank us, we are just providing you a platform; we want you to use it & present your ideas to the world.
I thank you for creating
I thank you for creating such an opportunity for our better future..
Looking into the problem: “making entrance into the PG, student friendly…”. Now-a-days, higher studies are left out as a dream for an average student to pursue his/her post graduation. They are not able to join in the college which they prefer with the current procedure followed. Many colleges are taking chances in collecting the funds as they wish in the name of applications. If this is the case, how many colleges can an economically backward student apply? These are some of the reasons which are making some of those students not applying for any further studies even though they have the desire and capability to do.
So to overcome these problems, my views are:
For present situation:
The student must be left out with an option to change the college even though he’s admitted in a college. For this to happen, minimum percentage of seats are to be left out to certain period of time and after that they can be filled by the college management as they wish. The seats are to be provided on first come first serve basis till that particular period is completed. This seems to be the same procedure implemented as that of the EAMCET online counseling. I suggested this procedure to be implemented as it is the future deciding factor of a student. As it is implemented at the state level, for the B.Pharm, I think it would not be problem for the central level, M.Pharm, to manage this procedure.
My other opinion which can be implemented alternatively is as follows:
Firstly, we need to have a common entrance exam to be conducted by a SPECIFIC BOARD which deals with the admissions and its procedure into the colleges, so that there will be no individual priorities to the colleges. The syllabus for this exam may be related to the Academics and Aptitude. These boards may either be at central level or state level and the importance must be given to the colleges according to the INFRASTRUCTURE they provide. The results should be categories based on the percentage/percentile they secure and so as the counseling is done.
Secondly, the management quota must completely be removed for the post graduation level to maintain the standard of the education.
Finally stipends are to be paid by the board as an appreciation for the bright students and as a helping hand for the economically backward students.
D.V.S.N. Aditya
Raghu College of Pharmacy
Vizag
A.P
Re: Looking into the problem
Dear Aditya,
The point you mention that a student must be allowed to change college even if he/she has confirmed admission is something intersting to think about.
CENTRALISED ADMISSION
I think the main problem is applying to each and every institution individually with the processing fee. To say frankly its really a critical situation for every one who aspires to M.pharma courses as it is not feasible to all. CENTRALISED ADMISSION would solve this problem. A bill should be passed in the parliament regarding the establishment of CENTRLISED ADMISSION procedure to be followed by all institutions . Admission procedure is to be adopted by a special body which regulates allotment of seats in all institutions all over India. Every institution should be recognized under this body. So that single payment for processing opens gates for admission into any institution listed. I think this process will be economical to all the students as we pay at once but not many times to each and every institution as before. This process can be made easy by giving passwords to every qualified which enables them admissions through online process.
Ragha Naveen
http://www.pharmainfo.net/raghanaveen
My Team
http://www.pharmainfo.net/blog/elegance
Ragha Naveen
http://www.pharmainfo.net/raghanaveen
My Team
http://www.pharmainfo.net/blog/elegance
Re: CENTRALISED ADMISSION
Dear Ragha Naveen,
You have tried to present a good idea of centralized admission. If you were aware that you can write your opinion up to 1000 words, we could have got more brillaint thoughts on the way these centralized admissions should be framed.
You have presented the idea in good manner though it is vey short.
WINGS OF CHANGE..........
‘Perfect as the wing of a bird may be, it will never enable the bird to fly if unsupported by air’
The same condition can be well applied to the students as however capable and intelligent a student may be,he/she cannot ascend the horizons of success unless supported by the institutions. Procuring admissions in the Pharmacy institutes is a herculean task and eventually this leads to chaos and mental trauma among the students and it wastes about three fourth of their times in applying and appearing for the entrance exams conducted for admissions.
Issues and concerns:
The major issues to which remedies are to be sought are:
• The Pharmacy aspirants after completing their intermediate are very confused and they are stormed with a volley of questions such as when,where,how and which colleges to apply .They lack information about the various institutes that offer pharmacy course due to the mushrooming of government as well as private colleges.
• Secondly the students face problem in appearing for many entrance exams for the respective college at various centers and subsequently attending counseling. A lot of money and time is wasted in travelling at the eve of the examination.
• Pharmacy colleges are affiliated to different universities. As a consequence of this nonuniformity, the young graduates face problem in competing with the students who have completed their degree from a different university. Similar is the case when a B.pharm or M.Pharm graduate wants to pursue higher studies abroad.
• The condition worsens even more when certain universities delay the result and the candidate lose an opportunity to get admitted in the renowned institutes as he is unable fulfill the norms.
• There is no limit on the number of attempts at entrance tests that a student can undergo. This leads to increase in competition among the just passed out candidates.
• The number of seats for the GATE is not constant which leads to fluctuations in the number of GATE qualified candidates each year.
• The pharmacy course is under the jurisdiction of many governing bodies and there is lack of proper and synchronized working of the conducting bodies and the involvement of many and different ministries at different levels of education in Pharmacy.
Discussion
The admission to the Pharmacy colleges is to be made as simple as possible that is to say to bring about reforms in the existing system of control. Some of the suggestions to address these issues areas follows:
1. There should be a Pharmacy colleges application service(PCAS) that provides with information right from the starting as how to prepare for the application process, to access your application and to learn about Pharmacy school admissions .It must also provide with mock tests so as to get accustomed to the pattern of examination.
2. The other very effective measure could be the conduct of an online exam termed as PCAT(Pharmacy colleges admission test) which will be for B.pharm.The major advantages would be:
• Students need not appear for a number of entrances.
• Run for centers and travel just on the eve of the examination.
• Avoid the overlapping of dates for exams and counseling.
• Uniformity in syllabus and assessment
• Easy on the pockets of the students
Undergraduate performance, performance in science classes especially, and extracurricular activities will also carry weightage in getting accepted into Pharmacy school. The PCAT is not meant to be the final verdict on an individual's admission to Pharmacy school.
3. The colleges must follow a GPA (Grade point average) system of assessment as :
• It determines a comparative assessment of candidate and he/she can be easily compared with the other candidate who has pursued his graduate or postgraduate degree from a different university.
• This will be highly useful in case of tie of the marks obtained in PCAT as the candidate having higher GPA would be given preference.
• Beneficial for students who want to apply for MS or PhD degrees abroad as they demand minimum GPA of 3.0 or 3.3, and most Ph.D. programs require minimum GPAs of 3.3 or 3.5.
4. The jurisdiction of the Pharmacy education should reside on a single body and it must strictly follow The Pharmacy Act. This will lead to the presence of a supreme or ultimate control on all private and government colleges. The various universities must announce the results promptly so that the students do not face problems in applying to the desired institutes for further studies.
5. Admissions to Post Graduation in Government colleges by GATE is easy and convenient for the conduct of the examination as well for the grant of the stipend .However the
• GATE examination should be conducted such that there are different sets of questions (such as A set ,B set in which the questions are same but in a jumbled manner) in order to avoid duplicating the answers in the OMR answer sheet.
• The seats for GATE qualified students must be fixed in order to overcome the fluctuations of the successful candidates and to provide an equal opportunity and be just to each batch of graduates.
• There must be a restriction on the number of attempts so as to reduce the competition among the fresh graduates.
• GATE examination can be made online and there must be a centralized online as well as offline campus counseling so that it reduces the strain of applying to individual colleges on the basis of GATE score
6. Few private institutes offer M.pharm course my suggestion would be that the all the private institutes and deemed universities combine and conducts exam solely for private colleges whereby depending on their ranks the student gets an opportunity to choose the desired institute.
7. More number of colleges must be brought under the umbrella of AICTE to offer QIP program which is a favorable provision for students to get into M.pharm and PhD courses after having a teaching experience of 3years.
Conclusion:
The students have to face a tough time in getting to a desired institute and their problems should be sought for as they are the future pharmacists of the nation. The need of the hour is to bring about phenomenal changes which can be implemented. We have a long way to go but as rightly said ‘Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain’.
TANYA
Manipal College Of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Manipal-576104,
Karnataka.
Tanya
Re: WINGS OF CHANGE
‘Perfect as the wing of a bird may be, it will never enable the bird to fly if unsupported by air’
And similarly we can say, "Perfect as the competition may be, it will never be able become successful if not supported by good contributors"
Dear Tanya,
You have given us wonderful insight into the admission process & the changes you want to see in it.
It really takes lot of efforts to write such good opinion.
Great work. I look forward to see your contribution to pharma community.
your appreciation is really
your appreciation is really very encouraging... i will try my level best to make valuable contributions....
Tanya
How to make admissions in Pharmacy Institutes Student friendly
Just as a coin has two sides, the admission procedures in to the pharmacy institutes include both advantages and disadvantages to the students. I think this is the critical situation and need some changes in the admission system. In the present context I would like to mention some of the disadvantages up to my knowledge and suggest few solutions to have an optimum benefit to the students.
Method of Examination:-
Though the technology has been increasing day by day our pattern of examination dates back to the ancestry i.e., the same old paper based test. Here, I would like to question, why can’t it be an online test? So that there will not be any delay of results.
Admissions to B.PHARM Institutes:-
Why can’t we have a separate entrance test for the B.Pharm? which is at present being unified with the medical entrance exam. I suggest PCI to conduct an exam exclusively for the students who have completed their +2 so that they can pursue their B.Pharm course in their favorite institutes all over India. If they feel it as a difficult task I have one more Idea…. Choose some of the well reputed B.Pharm schools i.e., the institutes have high standards in all respects, name those institutes as national school/institute of pharmacy and conduct an entrance test which is open to all +2 graduates.
Admission in to M.PHARM Institutes:-
Regarding the admission in to M.Pharm I would like to focus mainly on 3 aspects
1) Entrance exam twice a year:-
As each year of M.Pharm contains two semesters(totally 4) it is possible to admit students twice a year. If we consider any institute with M.Pharm, we can observe only either 1st and 3rd semesters or 2nd and 4th semesters during an academic year. After the completion of first semester in an institute if it admits another batch in to the first semester, the institute can run all the 4 semesters simultaneously. This gives a great advantage to the student to enter in to M.Pharm course.
2) Department wise entrance exam:-
At present we have single entrance test to enter in to any M.Pharm course. I mean, with the success of student in the entrance test he/she can have many options i.e., can enter in to pharmaceutics or pharmacology or any other course whatever he/she is interested in. Here I would like to question that what is the need to test a student’s ability in all the subjects he had in his B.Pharm career, though he can only enter in to a single branch of pharmacy.
I suggest different entrance exams for different departments in M.Pharm to be conducted. By this, a student who is interested, for example, in pharmaceutics can excel himself in the exam and enter in to M.Pharm institute.
3) Entrance in to the NIPER:-
What is the need to qualify in GATE in order to write a NIPER entrance test? Can’t we screen the students with a single entrance exam? Due to one or the other reason if a student either unable to attempt the exam or excel in the exam, obviously he has to lose an opportunity to enter in to NIPER. I suggest two solutions for this…
(i) Make admissions in to the institute with the entrance exam like GATE or
(ii) Conduct another exam which is in no way connected to the GATE
I think the above passage may make some sense about the admission procedure and can be worked well if considered.
Kishore Reddy
University College of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Kakatiya University,
Warangal,
Andhra Pradesh
Re: Just as a coin has two sides
Dear Kishore,
Good to see the coin being tossed up, so what was your call for it, heads or tail? :-)
I agree if whole system changes all institutes, including top Pharma schools, private pharma institutes should come under the regulation of it.
You have tried to represent a very good opinion.
A REAL STUDENT FRIENDLY APPROACH
Well, I think this is the right time to discuss such a topic because it is the time when ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS for various PHARMACY courses are going on all over INDIA.
Admission in Pharmacy Colleges in INDIA is not at all student friendly, whether it be in B. PHARM or M.PHARM or PhD. Students have to face lots of problems while taking admissions.
Generally, admission in a B. PHARM course is under the control of the concerned STATE. Therefore it is not that much of a troublesome procedure. Simply one has to give the STATE LEVEL ENTRANCE EXAM and on the basis of merit as well as the individual’s choice a student gets admission in the college.
Problem arises in the case of admission to M. PHARM. COURSES, because in this case one has to give due consideration to the desired BRANCH as well as desired COLLEGE. And another problem is that admissions in the PG Pharmacy courses are not controlled by a single common authority/ common rules. Every college or institute has totally different criteria for giving admissions. Therefore, even after qualifying GATE, which is an ALL INDIA ENTRANCE EXAMINATION, student is in a state of dilemma whether he would get an admission in a good College with a desired branch or not.
Some of the problems which are faced by students during their admission procedures are:-
1. They are supposed to fill the forms of the different colleges , where they seek or want to take admission, which is a very troubling
process because one has to keep a check on the DATE OF RELEASE as well as the LAST DATE of the submission of the forms,
as forms of different colleges are released on different dates.
2. The cost of these forms is also very high. And if one wants to take admission in a good college he has to fill on an average about 5
forms of different colleges and if ,one form costs on an average RS. 1000 – 1500, the total cost which is to be beared by individual
student is around RS. 7500 excluding travelling and accommodation charges because one has to move to different places for giving
exams of different colleges as well as interview.
3. Different colleges have different criteria’s for giving admissions, for example
A. Some colleges take their own Entrance Exams, and on the basis of their merit they give admissions, i.e. they do not give any
consideration to the GATE SCORE of the candidate
B. Some give admissions on the basis of GATE SCORE + INTERVIEW, which lefts some gap for partiality.
C. Some give admissions on the basis of B . PHARM. Marks + GATE SCORE + INTERVIEW.
So, this definitely creates problem for the students, because even after qualifying in the GATE they are not sure about their
admissions.
4. Entrance Exams for different colleges are conducted on different dates and sometimes overlapping of the dates occurs, which also
creates problems
5. Problems regarding REFUND OF FEES.
Suppose a student deposits the fees and takes admission in one of the colleges in a specific branch. And if after sometime he gets
a call from another desired good college where he is getting the preferred /desired branch, he would not be allowed to take
admission in that new college because he has already deposited the fees in the previous college, and if he wants to cancel the
admission in the previous college then some amount of money from his fees will be deducted i.e. complete fees is never refunded,
which again increases the cost on the part of the student
6. Some colleges even ask for donations along with the fees, which ultimately increases the total fees for the complete course.
Therefore, there should be some standardized procedure regarding admissions to the M. PHARM. Courses, by the help of which we
would be able to remove some of the problems which are faced by the students.
One such method could be:
1. PCI should take over the complete procedure for admissions,
2. All the institutes giving admission should come under the domain of PCI,
3. PCI should adopt the GRADING SYSTEM for all the institutes under its domain, and grade them according to the facilities available,
infrastructure, faculties, experience etc. as “A” GRADE, “B” GRADE, ETC.
4. It should conduct the ALL INDIA COMMON ENTRANCE TEST, and admissions to these colleges should be provided on the basis of
merit in the entrance exam as well as choice of the candidate according to the grading system.
5. There should be a provision for a COMMON PREFERENCE/OPTION FORM , which will contain the list of all the colleges under the
domain of PCI according to their allotted grades.
6. Then students would be asked to fill up the PREFERENCE FORM, i.e. they would list out the colleges and the branches they desire ,
in the order of their preference and submit it to the PCI.
7. Then PCI would allot the various colleges and branches in the order of the merit mentioned in the PREFERENCE FORM by the
candidate.
8. Then candidate has to choose the desired college as well as the branch from the options which are made available to him by the
PCI on the basis of the merit.
Those institutes, who don’t want to come under the domain of PCI, should create their own reputation in the market to attract the
candidates.
This would really simplify the admission procedure in pharmacy institutes if properly implemented.
DEEPAK KHANDELWAL
M. PHARM (PHARMACY MANAGEMENT)
MANIPAL COLLEGE OF PHARMACEUTICALSCIENCES
MANIPAL - 576104
KARNATAKA
INDIA.
Dear Khandelwaal Deepak....
Very interesting facts revealed by U...
Each and every point U have mentioned is true.
Your opinion against the various practical tenses being faced by students is appreciable..
Regards
eswar :-)
Regards
eswar :-)
TRUE FACTS
Sir, these are the problems which are faced by each and every student, who wants to take admission, even i faced similar problems .
therefore , we need to take some steps to solve these problems.
Thank you sir.