As the host of the 64th IPC, what is APTI’s role?
| Dr P G Yeole |
APTI was established 46 years ago by giant academicians of that time like Prof ML Shroff and Prof GP Shrivastava. It is an organisation whose heart beats and soul lives for the upgradation of profession and professionals in India. In today’s India, teachers are multidimensional professionals, they are counsellors, motivators, guides, researchers, advisor, and consultants along with instructors. The association, by hosting this mega event, is providing an excellent platform for its members of academic field to bridge the gap and interact with industry professionals.
The Congress’ theme is Vision 2020: Pharmacy Education: Innovation, Strategies and Globalisation. Why was this theme chosen?
Globally, the pharmacy profession has matured and transformed from a product oriented to patient oriented one. So our education and its delivery needs an integrated and interdisciplinary approach with innovative training in nurturing next generation of professionals, thus the theme of the Congress is the most apt to ignite the minds for innovative strategies for global supremacy. Some of the key issues like present status of pharmacy education in India, globalisation of pharmacy education and streamlining quality of pharmacy education by uniform accreditation procedures would be discussed. Due to the increased demand in the high-tech pharma industry around the world, business and industry have potential for huge profits working globally. So in today’s world, globalisation is an important concept for students in pharmacy education to appreciate because of the demand in business and industry to hire people who can work with people of other nations and cultures. In addition, the world faces global challenges and will need interdisciplinary groups to solve them. We have to agree and be open to accepting the fact that pharmacy education in the country is in a crisis. The survival of pharmacy institutions is questionable due to shortage of admissions. There are no takers for under graduate and even post graduate seats. Besides mushrooming growth other issues like declining employment opportunities, encroachment by industry people in academics, dichotomy in regulation, upgradation of diploma course, uniform curriculum at national level, establishment of pharmacy university needs attention.
What are your views on the industry – academia gap?
I agree there is a huge gap between the two. Academia is not meeting industry’s demands. India has one of the most advanced academic communities as well as a productive industrial sector. Opportunities are needed for professionals from academia and industry to connect, collaborate, and prosper. Significant differences exist in the way research is developed and exploited but professional interaction will increase cross-fertilisation of ideas.
How can these gaps be filled?
Education needs to be more skill oriented. The course content must be rewritten intermittently to stay updated and bridge the gaps between current technology and the institution. Industry, institute needs a dynamic and continuously evolving strategy, an innovative plan to renew the current strategy, to build sustainable bridges and remove unnecessary bumps that slows down innovation.
What are the event’s highlights?
This year IPC expects active deliberations of around 80 speakers, a president’ panel discussion, plenary lectures, symposia, debate and elocution competition. The most happening event of IPC is the poster session which is held in 12 different sections.
What benefits will IPC provide to students considered the future of the industry?
Students will get the best platform nationally for sharing and interacting, the chance to listen to active deliberations of eminent personalities, an opportunity to visit grand techno-exhibition, opportunity to meet, interact, share and develop long lasting bond with fellow professionals.
How many technical sessions will 64th IPC have?
In 64th IPC around 80 renowned speakers will be actively deliberating on topics as diverse as ‘Challenges in manufacturing generics” to “Globalisation of Pharmacy Education” and the renowned speakers are top ranking Industrialist, pharmacy professionals from India and abroad, and the delegates will get an opportunity to listen and participate actively in deliberations.
Please throw some light on the problems being faced by the students.
It is believed that profession of pharmacy is recession-free, but students are facing several problems and the root cause is the mushrooming of education centres across the country which in turn results in the imbalance of supply and demand ratio. Another problem is that the education today is interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary, so students have very poor knowledge of core subjects and this affects their future professional growth. Another problem that students are facing is non-uniformity of syllabus across the country.
The total tenure for the doctorate degree has been increased by one year. Please comment on the adverse effects it will have on the students?
I really think that by increasing the tenure by one year, students will face no adverse problems, I only want to suggest that we should follow the IIT pattern, instead of final viva, we should evaluate the students work every year and give grades and at the end calculate grade point average, in short continuous monitoring by expert committee will give some fruitful results at the end of tenure.
Today, majority of the general practitioners are BHMS and BAMS and still they practice allopathy. What is your view on this?
Legally and ethically it is wrong. They are not supposed to prescribe allopathic medicines because they are not trained to do so. In India it happens only because of sheer negligence of authorities.
According to you which curriculum urgently requires up-gradation and why?
I sincerely feel that upgradation in pharmacy curriculum is urgently needed because present curriculum does not meet industry requirements. Also there is a need to harmonise the pharmacy curriculum. Being dean of faculty of medicine at RTM Nagpur University, we have upgraded the PG Syllabus, and changed it from annual to semester pattern. To date UG the syllabus is product oriented but we are determined to make it more patient-oriented, keeping in mind global trends.
Which topics will be discussed at IPC 2012?
Besides those already mentioned, other pertinent topics to be discussed at IPC include challenges for posed by the current global financial status, challenges in producing pharmaceuticals for international market, skills required as a global pharmacist of the 21st century, lessons learnt on the quality journey, intellectual property and launching new products, and up-gradation of student assessment in pharma education. Nanobiotech, herbals, targeting cancer stem cells, recent advances in manufacturing biotechnological products will also feature. Continuing education and up-gradation of the quality for pharmacy teachers.
What message would you like to provide on behalf of APTI for 64th IPC?
Being the President of APTI, I want all delegates to actively enjoy every deliberation, upgrade their knowledge bank, enjoy the scenic beauty of Chennai and leave as happy individuals.