THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The All-India Council for Technical Education has decided to run Pharm.D course, liberating it from the stranglehold of the Pharmacy Council of India. Pharm D, a professional doctor degree in pharmacy and very much similar to professional degrees like MBBS, BDS, BVsc or BAMS/ BHMS, suffered from the lack of professional regulations. It is not a doctoral programme like PhD or D.Lit. Out of the 220 colleges, except three or four, all Pharm.D Colleges are in private sector.
State governments are reluctant to start Pharm.D as it was not an approved pharmacy programme of AICTE, though it is in demand on the global plane. Pharm.D was introduced in 2008 by the Pharmacy Council of India. It was notified as a professional degree programme of six years and later through a circular the PCI equated Pharm.D to M.Pharm. It was introduced in two streams- Regular Six Year Pharm.D with Plus 2 or D.Pharm as minimum qualification for admission and three year post baccalaureate- Pharm.D ( PB) with B.Pharm as minimum qualification for admission.
As per AICTE Act 1987 and the AICTE Regulations 2016, like other engineering and technology programmes, all pharmacy degree and diploma programmes have to be approved by AICTE. But Pharm.D programme was not approved by the AICTE. However many Pharm D colleges misled the public as they had AICTE approval for B.Pharm course. Pharm.D students never got opportunities to apply for various schemes of AICTE like travel grant and seminar grant. They could not appear for G.PAT examinations because Pharm.D was not an AICTE approved programme. Pharm.D (PB) students, even if G.PAT-qualified, were not eligible to get stipend. Many Pharm.D qualified persons are doing PhD programmes in various Indian Universities, without any financial support from AICTE. Some Universities provide financial assistance from UGC for the PhD programmes of those who completed Pharm.D.
