knust doctor of pharmacy

KNUST Doctor of Pharmacy, Entry Requirements and Course Outline

What is Doctor of Pharmacy

Doctor of Pharmacy is a professional undergraduate degree that is required by several countries including Ghana, Nigeria, and the USA as a basic requirement for registration as a pharmacist.

This pharmacy degree is offered as a six-year duration programme in most countries but some countries offer it as a two-year top-up programme to people who already have a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy.

Click here for a list of all the pharmacy-related courses and their respective duration

In Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) was the premier university to institute this 6 years Doctor of Pharmacy degree programme. 

All the other institutions offering Pharmacy in Ghana have now successfully transitioned to the Doctor of Pharmacy programme too.

This means that anyone who wants to become a pharmacist by studying in Ghana will have to apply to study the Doctor of Pharmacy in any of the institutions offering the programme.

Admission requirements for KNUST Doctor of Pharmacy

KNUST accepts three different categories of people into their Doctor of Pharmacy programme. These three categories are:

  • Applicants with WASSCE/SSSCE qualification
  • Applicants with A’ Level qualification
  • Applicants who are considered Mature applicants

Applicants with WASSCE/SSSCE qualification

You need to have a minimum of three passes in the elective subjects (Chemistry, Biology, and Physics or Mathematics). This means that individuals who get anything beyond a C6 in more than one of these elective subjects are not eligible or do not qualify for this course.

Applicants with A’ Level qualification

If you have an A’ Level qualification, you need a minimum of five (5) credits which should include English Language and Mathematics, together with three (3) passes in any of the electives (Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics).

You should also have a pass in General Paper. 

Mature Applicants

To qualify as a mature applicant, you must be at least 25 years at the time of submitting your application forms.

Mature applicants can be applicants with either WASSCE/SSSCE or O’ level qualifications.

For O’ Level, a minimum of five (5) credits including English Language and Mathematics.

For WASSCE/SSSCE, a minimum of credit passes in three (3) of your electives (Biology, Chemistry, and Physics or Mathematics)

Duration of the KNUST Doctor of Pharmacy Course

The doctor of pharmacy programme is a six-year programme leading to the award of a professional undergraduate doctorate degree in pharmacy.

The first five (5) years of the course is spent on campus with the fifth year comprising outside campus work. During the fifth year, students choose an elective for which they will be attached to a particular company or institution to train under depending on the elective of choice.

The following electives are available to every fifth-year student:

  • Research and Academia
  • Community Pharmacy
  • Hospital Pharmacy
  • Industrial Pharmacy
  • Regulatory
  • Pharma marketing

These electives represent the various facets of pharmacy that students can look into venturing as future job prospects. As such, this training is to expose students to all potential jobs that they may encounter in the near future.

Students get to choose at least two of these, one for each semester in their fifth year. You are therefore advised to choose those that you have a higher interest in or the ones that you want to explore.

The final year is spent fully in an accredited hospital for practical application of all the knowledge the students have acquired over the previous five years.

Course outline (Programme Curriculum)

First year course outline

The following are the various courses with the respective credit hours that first-year pharmacy students in KNUST will study;

First semester

Course CodeCourse NameCredits
PHARM 181HUMAN ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY4
PHARM 161ORIENTATION TO PHARMACY AND DISPENSING4
ENGL 157COMMUNICATION SKILLS I2
PHARM 155INORGANIC AND PHYSICAL PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY4
PHARM 191INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR PHARMACISTS3
MATH 151POST SHS MATHS2
First-semester course outline

Second semester

Course CodeCourse NameCredits
ENGL 158COMMUNICATION SKILLS II2
PHARM 162DISPENSING4
PHARM 182HUMAN ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY II4
PHARM 172INTRODUCTORY PHARMACOGNOSY4
MATH 152CALCULUS2
PHARM 152ORGANIC PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY I4
Second-semester course outline

Second year course outline

First semester

Course CodeCourse NameCredits
PHARM 261PHYSICAL PHARMACY4
PHARM 271PHYTOCHEMISTRY3
PHARM 263PHARMACEUTICAL MICROBIOLOGY I3
MATH 153STATISTICAL METHODS I2
PHARM 281BIOCHEMISTRY I4
PHARM 251PHYSICAL PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY4

Second semester

Course CodeCourse NameCredits
PHARM 294PHARMACY COMMUNICATION AND PATIENT COUNSELING3
PHARM 262PHARMACEUTICAL MICROBIOLOGY II4
PHARM 252ORGANIC PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY II4
PHARM 282BIOCHEMISTRY II4

Third year course outline

First semester

Course CodeCourse NameCredits
PHARM 363PHARMACEUTICAL BIOTECHNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY4
PHARM 381INTRODUCTORY PHARMACOLOGY4
FC 181FRENCH FOR COMMUNICATION PURPOSES2
PHARM 351MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY I4
PHARM 361PHARMACEUTICAL TECHNOLOGY I4

Second semester

Course CodeCourse NameCredits
PHARM 362PHARMACEUTICAL TECHNOLOGY II3
FC 182FRENCH FOR COMMUNICATION PURPOSES II2
PHARM 382SYSTEMS PHARMACOLOGY I4
PHARM 352PHARMACEUTICAL ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY3
PHARM 372NATURAL DRUG PRODUCTION AND EVALUATION3
PHARM 366IMMUNOLOGY2
PHARM 392PATHOPHYSIOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS I4

Fourth year course outline

First semester

Course CodeCourse NameCredits
PHARM 493BIOSTATISTICS AND RESEARCH METHODS2
PHARM 481SYSTEMS PHARMACOLOGY II4
PHARM 491PATHOPHYSIOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS II4
PHARM 485CHEMICAL PATHOLOGY I2
FREX 1FRENCH FOR PHARMACISTS1
PHARM 461BIOPHARMACEUTICS3
PHARM 451MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY II3
PHARM 471PHYTOPHARMACEUTICALS AND VETERINARY PHARMACY2

Second semester

Course CodeCourse NameCredits
PHARM 450PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY PROJECT4
PHARM 482CHEMICAL PATHOLOGY II2
PHARM 484CHEMOTHERAPY3
PHARM 492PATHOPHYSIOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS III4
PHARM 494PHARMACOECONOMICS2
PHARM 496SOCIOLOGY FOR PHARMACISTS2
PHARM 498PHARMACY JURISPRUDENCE2

Fifth year course outline

First semester

Course CodeCourse NameCredits
MGT 471PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT2
PHARD 559ELECTIVE (ACADEMIC RESEARCH, COMMUNITY PHARMACY, HOSPITAL PHARMACY PRACTICE, REGULATORY, MARKETING)2
PHARD 573COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE2
PHARD 591PUBLIC HEALTH I2
PHARD 593PHARMACY PRACTICE I5
PHARD 595PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY2
PHARD 597CLINICAL PHARMACOKINETICS AND THERAPEUTIC DRUG MONITORING2
PHARD 599SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT2

Second semester

Course CodeCourse NameCredits
MGT 472ENTREPRENEURSHIP3
PHARD 556ELECTIVE (ACADEMIC RESEARCH, COMMUNITY PHARMACY, HOSPITAL PHARMACY PRACTICE, REGULATORY, MARKETING)2
PHARD 582CLINICAL TOXICOLOGY3
PHARD 594PHARMACY PRACTICE II5
PHARD 596SEMINARS2
PHARD 592PUBLIC HEALTH II2

Sixth year

The whole of the sixth year is spent in a chosen hospital on rotational basics. You will be rotating every 6 weeks. There will be a final examination after the end of all six (6) rotations.

Course CodeCourse NameCredits
PHARM 691EXPERIENTIAL PRACTICE: INTERNAL MEDICINE5
PHARM 692EXPERIENTIAL PRACTICE: MATERNAL HEALTH5
PHARM 693EXPERIENTIAL PRACTICE: EMERGENCY MEDICINE5
PHARM 694EXPERIENTIAL PRACTICE: CHILD HEALTH5
PHARM 695EXPERIENTIAL PRACTICE: SURGERY5
PHARM 696EXPERIENTIAL PRACTICE: ELECTIVE (HIV/TB, ENT, MENTAL HEALTH, ONCOLOGY)5

The video below gives you details about the final year rotation for the doctor of pharmacy student.

Nature and Duration of Examination

Pharmacy students in KNUST undertake two major examinations in the course of any semester. The first one is taken in the middle of the semester and the final one is taken at the end.

The mid-semester examination usually lasts for one week and this involves all courses registered for that semester. This means that students may be required to write more than one exam paper in a day depending on the number of courses they registered in that particular semester.

With the end-of-semester examination, students usually have two to three weeks to write such exams. Mostly, the laboratory related examinations will be written a week prior to the main exams. As such the main exams are usually two weeks long.

Either of the exams may be in the form of multiple-choice questions or theory questions depending on the course and the lecturer’s preference. The majority of the courses will be multiple-choice questions.

For the multiple-choice questions, there are about 4 or 5 different sections involved with each coming with a different set of the preamble. Some of the sections include:

  • Assertion type of questions
  • Single Best Answer (SBA) questions
  • Matching
  • True or False
  • Multiple select type of questions

Assessment of students and Pass mark

The faculty employs the weighted average score which is the system of grading used by KNUST. This involves scoring students based on the total credit for the respective courses that were taken.

The pass mark for the doctor of pharmacy students is 50% (CWA). That is for the cumulative weighted average (CWA). Thus, in the course of study, a student stands the chance of being repeated or withdrawn from the institution if their CWA is below 50%.

Also, at the level of the courses, a pass mark of 50% is set for all pharmacy-related courses while a 40% pass mark is set for all other borrowed courses or general university courses like Calculus, Statistics, and Communication skills.

A chunk of the students’ scores in each semester comes from their end-of-semester examinations. Most of the courses in the faculty allocate a 70% score to their end-of-semester exams and 30% to all the other forms of assessment including the mid-semester exams.

Some other courses allocate in the ratio of 60:40

Departments in the faculty of Pharmacy, KNUST

The faculty is known as the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (FPPS) and falls under the College of Health Sciences (CoHS). 

FPPS offers two main undergraduate programmes; Six years Doctor of Pharmacy and Four years BSc. Herbal Medicine.

Currently, the faculty has 6 (six) different departments and they are;

  • Department of Pharmaceutical chemistry
  • Department of Pharmacology
  • Department of Pharmacognosy
  • Department of Pharmaceutics
  • Department of Pharmacy Practice (Previously Department of Clinical and Social Pharmacy)
  • Department of herbal Medicine

Unlike other faculties where students will choose a particular department to belong to, every student in the faculty of Pharmacy will work with all the available departments. That is to say, if you are a student of the faculty, you will be lectured by lecturers from all these departments.

It is only during the fourth-year project work that you will get to choose one of these departments to work with.

Doctor of Pharmacy Class schedule in KNUST

From the first to third year, each class is divided into two main groups, and each group is further divided into subgroups.

The two major groups will be alternating in terms of what time (morning or afternoon) to be attending class every semester.

On a regular day, one set will go to class from 8:00 am to 12:30 pm while the other group will be in their respective lab groups. The groups then switch after 12:30 pm so that the group in class now moves to the lab and vice versa.

The subgroups are for laboratory purposes. For instance, during a particular semester where a year group has about 4 different courses to take that come with labs, there will be four subgroups.

This means that during the period for labs, each group will be in their respective lab.

Student Associations in the faculty

(Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, KNUST)

There are two main student associations in the faculty. Every student will automatically belong to one of these two associations depending on their programme of study. These two associations are;

  • Ghana Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (GPSA)
  • Ghana Herbal Medicine Students’ Association (GHEMSA)

Aside from these two main associations, there are a number of interest groups that students can choose to belong to.

Some of these interest groups include:

  • Pharmacy Christian Fellowship
  • Pharmedia (Media Committee for GPSA)
  • Editorial committee
  • Health committee
  • I.T Committee
  • Organizing committee
  • International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation (IPSF)
  • Welfare committee

Postgraduate programmes offered by the faculty

The faculty offers various postgraduate courses not limited to just pharmacy students. Anyone with the requisite undergraduate qualifications can apply to study for any of the following degree types in the faculty;

  • Master of Philosophy (MPhil)
  • Master of Science (MSc)
  • Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This is offered by all the departments (except the Herbal Medicine department) and so depending on your interest you can choose what to study. For instance, if you are interested in the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department, you can choose to read MPhil. Pharmaceutical Chemistry.

If you are interested in the Department of Pharmacy Practice, then you can choose to read Msc. Clinical Pharmacy.

WRITTEN AND EDITED RESPECTIVELY BY:

Dr. Ehoneah Obed is a registered pharmacist and a member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana. He has a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and has experience working in a Tertiary hospital as well as various community pharmacies. He is also a software engineer interested in healthcare technologies.

His love for helping others motivates him to create content on an array of topics mostly relating to the health of people and also software engineering content.

He is knowledgeable in digital marketing, content marketing, and a host of other skills that make him versatile enough to uplift any team he joins.

Chief Editor at Wapomu.com

MPSGH, MRPharmS, MPhil.

Isaiah Amoo is a practicing community pharmacist in good standing with the Pharmacy Council of Ghana who has meaningful experience in academia and industrial pharmacy. He is a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, England, UK and currently pursuing his overseas pharmacy assessment programme (MSc) at Aston University, UK. He had his MPhil degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He has about 5 years’ experience as a community Pharmacist and has also taught in academic institutions like KNUST, Kumasi Technical University, Royal Ann College of Health, and G-Health Consult. He likes to spend time reading medical research articles and loves sharing his knowledge with others.

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