Our vision
Traditionally, university education has largely focused on producing graduates with deep discipline knowledge. Today’s graduates need:
- the skills to assimilate, synthesise and apply information from multiple sources;
- to learn and adapt to changing circumstances, meet the future demands of the fields and professions studied, build relationships and contribute innovatively to team-based professional practices to develop solutions; and
- to clearly communicate across social, cultural, economic contexts and scientific disciplines.
Our faculty is transforming its educational enterprise to ensure that our graduates are equipped to become national and international leaders in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences. This is consistent with the University Impact 2030 strategic plan, and the related Education Impact 2030 strategic plan.
To that end, our graduates will:
- Apply deep scientific and professional knowledge that has been tested and refined.
- Act creatively to develop and evaluate solutions to complex problems, applying relevant core concepts and using available evidence.
- Work effectively with a range of stakeholders to shape outcomes and develop innovative solutions.
- Show initiative and adaptability when faced with changing circumstances.
- Demonstrate professionalism and intercultural competence, and the qualities of a global citizen.
Therefore, our graduates will be transformers of health outcomes through their roles as health professionals and/or in discovering and developing new medicines.
Pedagogical basis
The prevailing view in the learning sciences literature is that learning needs to enrich mastery of the subject matter content with an application of that content to real-world problems, scenarios and situations in authentic learning contexts.
From this perspective, knowledge is much more than something that is acquired, stored, and then recalled as and when necessary (this being an information processing view of learning and cognition). Knowledge is increasingly seen as an outcome of the active relationship between an understanding of the subject matter content and its application in context.
For this to occur, learners need both understanding of the subject matter content as well as skills in its application to real word problems and situations. This is a constructivist view of learning, and it is grounded in the realisation that learning and teaching is most efficient, effective and engaging when it is situated in contexts within which learners are or will be operating.