Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Care

The faculty organizes two “domain” Master’s degrees, namely the Master in Pharmaceutical Care and the Master in Drug Development. Both degrees lead to the professional title of pharmacist and therefore include the legally required work placement period of 26 weeks. The Master of Pharmaceutical Care (2 years) builds on the academic Bachelor’s degree (3 years) in Pharmaceutical Sciences. In the Master’s programme in Pharmaceutical Care, the emphasis is on the social role of the pharmacist as a scientifically trained medical expert in patient care, with special attention to promoting and monitoring the effective, safe and cost-efficient use of medicines. The study programme prepares you well for a role as a pharmaceutical expert in health care, for example, in a pharmacy, or with the government, a health insurance fund, a scientific institution, the pharmaceutical inspectorate, the pharmaceutical industry, etc. You can move on to the advanced Master’s programmes in Hospital Pharmacy, Clinical Biology, Industrial Pharmacy or the doctorate.

In both Master’s years, scientific pharmaceutical education takes centre stage, with a strong focus on practice-based scientific knowledge. The curriculum aims at integrating pharmaceutical knowledge and skills and is a mixture of pharmaceutical-technological, medical-biological, and specific pharmaceutical knowledge. In addition to a number of general course units shared with the Drug Development curriculum, the Pharmaceutical Care curriculum contains a number of specific compulsory course units. The first-year curriculum includes a Master’s dissertation that is based on experimental research conducted in a national or foreign research group. By means of elective courses, the second-year curriculum allows students to further orient their education depending on their interests or future prospects.
The pharmacy work placement period is scheduled for the second year. It is possible to undertake part of the work placement during the summer break following the first year. A number of ‘follow-up days’ are planned in which the practical experience is assessed and adjusted.

In addition to the (domain) Master’s programme described above, you can also choose a Master’s Programme in Teaching (in Dutch: Educatieve Master). More information about this can be found at www.ugent.be/educatievemaster.

The versatility of the study programme offers the graduate pharmacist a wide range of career opportunities. The study programme mainly prepares you for a role as a pharmaceutical expert in health care. The profession of retail pharmacist is the most obvious one, but many graduates also end up in hospitals and care institutions, with other actors in health care (such as the government, the health insurance funds, the pharmaceutical inspectorate, etc.), in scientific institutions or in education (both secondary education and university colleges).

Retail Pharmacy

The number of independent pharmacies is regulated by the Establishment Act of 1974. The positions of responsible pharmacist, deputy pharmacist or substitute pharmacist are all fully fledged and valuable forms of practicing the pharmacy profession. Even if you are not the owner of a pharmacy yourself, you can develop an exciting career within the retail pharmacy. There are several options:

• pharmacist-owners hold the professional title of pharmacist, and own their own pharmacy;
• responsible pharmacists hold the professional title of pharmacist, and work in a pharmacy owned by a third party. The latter can either be another pharmacist, a cooperation or a company;
• deputy pharmacists hold the professional title of pharmacist (in Dutch: titularis), and work for a managing or a supervising pharmacist;
• substitute pharmacists hold the professional title of pharmacist and stand in for a managing or deputy pharmacist for a specific period in time in case of (sick) leave. They do so either on a part-time or on a fulltime basis.

Care Institutions

Hospitals and other care institutions have an in-house pharmacy to cover their pharmaceutical needs. As hospital pharmacist you are responsible for the preparation and distribution of the medicines, and for the effective, safe and cost-efficient use of medicines within the healthcare institution. In order to obtain a Master’s degree in Hospital Pharmacy, you must take an additional specialization in the form of a three-year interuniversity advanced Master’s programme. You must also be registered on the list of recognized hospital pharmacists.

Other Possibilities

This broad programme offers a whole range of future career opportunities that cannot be described in a few sentences. Be sure to take a look at our career guide with a whole series of stories from former students.