Hyderabad: A freeze on granting approvals for fresh proposals of new pharmacy colleges is being implemented for five years by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) as they want to assess the functioning of existing pharmacy colleges, education programs conducted and job opportunities for passouts.
There are 1,200 colleges from where 1.5 lakh students pass out every year. The AICTE has taken this stand as the number of unemployed pharmacists is as high as 50,000 per year and most of them divert from their professional education as they do not get jobs. Pharmacy courses were also reviewed in 2012-13 as there were lots of complaints from student organisations that there are no proper jobs for them. But there was no action taken.
A senior member of the AICTE said, “The freeze on grant of approvals for new colleges will be for a term of five years. It is important to check whether the existing colleges are able to deliver technical knowledge according to the demands of the industry. There have often been complaints of the gap between what is taught and what is practiced.”
Another senior member of the Pharmacy Council of India explained, “There are too many pharmacy colleges and it has reached a saturation point in the country. The existing pool of pharmacists is unemployed and there is a lot a concern. We cannot start more colleges.”
Dr. K G Revikumar, pharmacy academic expert explained, “In 2006, there were only 660 colleges with an intake of 75,000 students. But in 2016 it has risen to 1,200 colleges which is very high. Between 2012 to 2016, there have been 22 colleges which have reported lack of students, shortage of qualified staff and other technical issues. Given this situation a review will give us an idea of the existing situation of pharmacy education in the country.”
