The College of Pharmacy, Gulf Medical University offers five degree programs. The BPharm (accelerated path to PharmD) program, Postgraduate PharmD program, Diploma in Pharmacy Technician (DPT) program, Master in Clinical Pharmacy (MCP) program, and Master of Science in Drug Discovery and Development (MDD) program. All programs are accredited by Commission for Academic Accreditation, Ministry of Education, UAE / National Qualifications Center (NQC). In our continuous endeavor to improve the quality of our pharmacy programs, the undergraduate Pharmacy program received international-accreditation by the American Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE). Our College of Pharmacy is also an academic institutional member of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP).
The aim of the BPharm (accelerated Path to PharmD) program is to prepare and graduate professional pharmacists who are drug therapy experts. Starting with a solid foundational knowledge base in biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences in the initial phase, students quickly and smoothly move into the pharmacy practice and clinical pharmacy phase of the program. Professional skills labs offer an opportunity for clinical simulations and roleplay preparing our students for early exposure into the “real practice” environment. The Bachelor of Pharmacy program offers GMU students pharmacy practice experiences in GMU affiliated hospitals, clinics and community pharmacies. Despite the large number of healthcare facilities that are affiliated with GMU, the College of Pharmacy has developed key partnership with other hospitals including Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Hospital Ajman. These diverse experiences in such advanced healthcare practice environments provide our graduates with the needed pharmacy practice skills required to succeed as they move on to be professional pharmacy practitioners anywhere in the world. Pharmacy Practice Experiences (PPE) amount to a total of 2560 contact hours in affiliated and partner healthcare facilities in UAE and abroad. These experiences are modeled after North American programs in a well-structured manner with specific activities aiming at attaining specific skills and competencies that relate to the overall program learning outcomes. Select students have the opportunity to do one of their PPE rotations in one of our partner institutions in the United States e.g. Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Saint Joseph in Connecticut and others.
Postgraduate PharmD is master’s degree advancing a pharmacist to be a clinical pharmacist specializing in a student-selected clinical area of focus. It has a total of 71 credits and spans over a period of two years. The Postgraduate PharmD program goals are to equip and enable Clinical Pharmacists to become change agents, meet the challenges in a changing healthcare system in the country to enhance the quality of care to an advanced clinical level. It also aims to facilitate self-development and collaborative practice at a higher level. The outcomes of the Postgraduate PharmD is based on the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) competencies for Clinical Pharmacists.
The DPT is a two–year (92 credits) program spread over 4 semesters. The DPT program equips graduates with specialized knowledge and skills to practice as pharmacy technicians in various healthcare and industrial practice settings; including hospitals, clinics, community pharmacies and pharmaceutical industry. The program is meticulously designed to provide students with an in-depth understanding of pharmaceutical practices and patient care. Our hands-on training equips students with practical skills, ensuring they are prepared for success in diverse healthcare settings.
Master in Clinical Pharmacy is a specialized degree allowing pharmacy graduates to specialize in a student selected clinical area of focus. MCP is a unique program in the country that offers several areas of specialization including cardiology, infectious diseases, parenteral nutrition, and others. The advantage for students is the opportunity to become clinical specialists with a chosen specialty course (3 credits), specialty rotation (4 credits), and research thesis on the same specialty (6 credits) which is the highlight of GMU MCP Program.
The Master’s in Drug Discovery and Development (MDD) program is a specialized degree allowing pharmacy and biomedical sciences graduates to develop research skills in the pharmaceutical sciences domain. MDD students have the opportunity to mix and match between several courses from a basket of electives allowing them to gain exposure to one or more pharmaceutical sciences specialties (Pharmacology, Drug Design, and Drug Delivery) relevant to drug discovery and development. Students can do research in one of the program specialties. Alternatively, students can also have an interdisciplinary research project that has two or three pharmaceutical sciences specialties which will broaden their scope and provide them with a more wide and rich experience in different disciplines.