Course directors' update
L-R: Associate Professor Dan Malone, Dr Ian Larson, Dr Tony Hughes.
Associate Professor Dan Malone, Course Director for the BPharm (Hons)/MPharm, Dr Ian Larson, Course Director for the Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science, and Dr Tony Hughes, Course Director of the MPharmSci, reflect on the highlights and challenges of 2024 for their courses and what’s on the horizon as student numbers continue to grow.
BPharm: Integrating AI and providing global opportunities to pharmacy students
The BPharm (Hons)/MPharm was recognised with several awards over 2024, observes Course Director and Associate Professor, Dan Malone.
“The strength of our pharmacy degree has been acknowledged with a Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Award, for Programs that Enhance Learning,” he explains. “We’re also proud to have won the inaugural Australian Council of Deans of Health Sciences - Allied Health Education Innovation Award”.
“These awards recognise both the quality of our degree as well as the standard of graduates coming through”.
Other milestones for the Bachelor of Pharmacy in 2024 included:
- The appointment of Dr Angelina Lim to Deputy Pharmacy Degree Director
- The re-accreditation of the Pharmacy Degree by the Australian Pharmacy Council
- The establishment of a “consumer group” to provide feedback that will inform future refinements to the degree.
From 2025, third year students will be eligible to complete a research unit at Monash’s Prato Centre, in Italy. A new initiative, pioneered by Professor Joseph Nicolazzo, this intensive unit will be studied over July and is in addition to the inquiry project that students can apply to complete at the University of North Carolina (UNC).
“There was strong demand, with around 80 students applying for the 30 positions,” Dan says.
Each year, a handful of students also transfer between Monash’s Melbourne and Malaysia campuses.
“Students love the Monash Malaysia transfer experience or studying at UNC” Dan says. “Italy is another great international opportunity”.
Dan also highlights the success of rural and remote placements over 2024, with students experiencing the unique aspects of being a pharmacist in locations including Broome, Alice Springs and Broken Hill.
“International and interstate opportunities enhance students’ ability to work in various areas of practice,” Dan explains.
“We are continually evolving and changing our pharmacy degree to meet the needs of the profession and to ensure our graduates are practise ready with skills to match the broadening area of pharmacy practice.”
Communication and teamwork during workshops.
Dan says two areas under the spotlight include a new focus on the role of pharmacists in aged care and vaccination (currently offered in post-graduate degrees).
Communication and teamwork have also long been degree focuses, especially in later years. However, Dan says that staff are actively looking for ways to identify and support students who need to develop these skills at an earlier stage in their journey.
Dan also says that one of the challenges has been integrating AI into assessments and ensuring students know how to use AI with integrity.
“Pharmacists may need to use AI in a variety of ways, from writing an email right through to enhancing clinical healthcare,” Dan explains. “It can assist students with their study and in self-reflective tasks but it should not be replacing student learning”.
“We’re also cognisant of the use of AI by the public and the corresponding need to ensure our students know how to use it and critically evaluate its outputs”.
BPharmSci: Adapting to industry and research needs
Course Director for the Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science, Dr Ian Larson, says that the rise of AI is introducing new challenges, especially when it comes to applying processes for how it should be used in teaching and learning.
“AI is a new ball game,” Ian says. “After ChatGPT launched in late 2022, the University and Faculty had to quickly respond in terms of implementing processes for educating students about using AI.”
“I’ve been impressed by the way our staff have adapted and experimented so we can teach students about it and show them the pitfalls. But we also wanted to show them how to use it when it’s appropriate, because it does have many useful applications.”
With studies and evidence now available on best-use, the faculty is developing formal processes and strategies around appropriate use of Gen AI that will be implemented in 2025.
In the same way students have to complete an academic integrity module, Ian says students will soon have to complete an introduction to GenAI module when they enter first year.
The BPharmSci course has also experienced several achievements in 2024.
“We’ve had a good year in 2024, with the BPharmSci course starting successfully in Malaysia,” Ian explains. “It had higher than anticipated student enrolments and the potential for student exchanges beginning from next year”.
“Locally, the course is continuing to grow, and while the majority of our students are domestic enrolments, we’re concerned about the many impacts a cap on international students could have.”
Tweaks have been made to ensure the degree continues to provide industry-ready graduates.
“Part of our remit is to meet research needs as well as industry needs and both these things are always evolving,” Ian explains.
“Thanks to the COVID vaccine putting mRNA in the spotlight, there is now a strong research focus on nanoparticles, and we have responded by creating a new third year elective unit called ‘Nanotechnology and polymer science in drug delivery’”.
Ian says that, in a course where student numbers are still increasing year-on-year, the biggest challenge is organising enough industry placements for third-year students.
“There is a strong demand for our graduates and the range of industries our grads can get work in is quite broad,” Ian says. “Many students actually end up with jobs outside the pharmaceutical industry, in personal care, cosmetics and makeup, coatings, paints, food and beverages”.
“Alumni with any interest and capability to take students on an industry placement should contact us”.
MPharmSci: International appeal and strong research and industry demand
In late 2023, the inaugural cohort of 60 students graduated from the two-year Masters of Pharmaceutical Science degree.
While some continued on a research path to undertake a PhD, others quickly found employment in an industry setting, with one even applying their skills to life in a Consulting/Accounting firm.
Dr Tony Hughes is Course Director, and says the demand for the degree has exceeded expectations.
“When we set up the Masters, we planned to have a cohort of 150 in about five years,” Tony explains. “But our second cohort graduating in 2024 already has 150 students and we have 240 students finishing first year this year”.
Tony puts this rapidly rising popularity down to a couple of factors. The first is Monash’s consistent number one or two ranking in the world for Pharmacy and Pharmacology (QS Global Rankings by Subject) - a major attraction for students serious about a career in the field.
Second, he believes it's a case of ‘the right product at the right time’ for students.
“As a field, pharmaceutical sciences and the ability to make new drugs gained prominence during the pandemic,” he explains. “It raised awareness of the role of pharmaceutical sciences in overcoming global health threats”.
“The pharmaceutical sciences industry is growing and our post-grad degree is not only meeting a real demand, it’s helping feed that growth.”
“We have strong demand in the course from international students coming from countries like China and India where pharmaceutical sciences is a growth industry,” Tony explains. “Some stay on to do PhDs, others return home for employment and some stay in Australia for job opportunities.”
“The world is interconnected and, as COVID showed us, health education shouldn’t only be in the national interest.”
Tony says the student diversity on campus also enriches the faculty’s courses.
“There is not one single type of MPharmSci student. They vary in any axis you look at and have different cultural, work and language backgrounds,” Tony explains. “Some have worked in industry for years; others are direct from undergrad degrees”.
Tony says the Masters appeals to many students who have studied biological or chemical sciences, pharmacology or physiology.
In 2025, electives will be introduced for the first time, with students able to choose from either the lab unit, or the University-wide Monash Innovation Guarantee (MIG): a unique unit that is already run at an undergraduate level across the University. Tony believes that MIG will complement the practical and knowledge-based skills students build in the Masters.
“Students come from Faculties across the uni and are put into cross-disciplinary teams to work with an industry partner to solve a problem,” Tony explains.
“MIG is a good option for students who feel they may be less likely to go down a lab/research based path, or simply want to expand their experience and around 25 per cent of the Masters students have decided to enrol.”
“This elective is an important foray for our Faculty into cross-disciplinary studies,” Tony says. “It's about giving our students a rich experience and offering them additional ways to connect them with likely employment options.
