Degree programme initiative: Pharmazeutische Wissenschaften

A partial revision of the Federal Medical Professions Act (MedBG) approved in March 2015 has resulted in the need to revise the federally accredited ETH degree program in Pharmaceutical Sciences (BSc & MSc) to reflect the desired orientation, especially in the Master’s curriculum, towards more clinical-medical competencies of pharmacists (Appendix, p. 2 & 3). The first goal of the planned study program initiative is to plan and implement this revision and legally prescribed new orientation for the first time in an area that does not belong to the core competencies of the ETH (since there is no connection to a medical faculty).
It should be noted that, as a rule, only about 67% of graduates of the pharmaceutical sciences program immediately embark on a career in the dispensary (= public pharmacy), while 33% of graduates either remain at the university (about 20% dissertation) or find work in industry or with public authorities (Appendix, p.4). We therefore expect that the planned revision towards more medical-clinical competencies (at the expense of the until now rather pharmaceutical research focused orientation) will make the degree program less attractive for graduates not oriented towards off-line or hospital pharmacy.
For this reason, we are planning not only to revise the Pharmaceutical Sciences program, but also to fundamentally adapt our second master’s program, the Master in Medicinal and In-dustrial Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS). This non-consecutive degree program, which primarily prepares students for employment in industry, has attracted only a small number of students over the past 8 years since its inception (6-12 per year, totaling 65 master’s degrees to date). The second goal of the planned program initiative is to revise the MIPS curriculum and to focus it more on pharmaceutical research in order to make this program attractive to a larger number of students, especially as an alternative to the Master in Pharmaceutical Sciences.

MSc Pharmacy: Systematic involvement of external lecturers: regular meetings, consolidation of teaching contents and interface management, development of new courses which are related to pharmaceutical practice.

MSc Pharmacy: Focus on the central application-related competences, including interactive learning methods, in order to practice their implementation.
MSc Pharm. Sciences: Rendering the degree programme more flexible: Admission is now also possible for non-pharmacists, many elective subjects and, as a consequence, tailored Study Plans, individual mentoring of the students by a faculty members.

The revision of the MSc Pharmacy (a degree programme accredited by the Federal Office of Public Health) was politically motivated and triggered by the revision of the Swiss legislation of medical professions (Schweiz. Medizinalberufegesetzgebung). The focus of the revision was particularly on acquiring application-related problem-solving skills, through the integration of many interactive tutorials, Case Studies, Flipped Classroom Sequences, etc., which are distributed throughout the entire Master’s degree programme.
In the MSc Pharmaceutical Sciences, many courses that strengthen/teach “transferrable skills” have been incorporated into the curriculum ( e.g. project management, scientific writing, presenting, Ethics in Research, etc). In addition, a one-week block-course on “Scientific Concepts and Methods” was established, to promote critical thinking and reflection among the students (https://www.ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2018/02/what-does-an-image-truly-convey.html).

MSc Pharmacy: The final evaluation is still pending.
MSc Pharmaceutical Sciences: Due to the high number of compulsory-elective subjects, problems arose in the planning of elective modules. This is now counteracted by informing students earlier and providing a greater flexibility in the order in which the study elements need to be completed.

MSc Pharmacy: The stronger focus on practical relevance and the introduction of clinical case studies were received very positively by the students.
MSc Pharm. Sciences: The interest in industry internships (as elective options, yielding credit points) was very high.

Didactic support including support in project management by the LET was very valuable.

• Learning and Teaching Fair 2020