Systems for Quality Assurance in Pharmacy Education and Training in the European Union

Abstract

With the changes in the Bologna process and the European directive on sectoral professions, the education and training of the pharmacists in the European Higher Education Area is moving towards a quality system based on competences. In this paper we analyze the existing quality assurance and accreditation systems in 10 countries and examine how far these systems have evolved from a resources and curriculum basis towards a competences basis. This is the first step towards the goal of the PHAR-QA project: establishment of a European quality assurance system based on competences. Existing systems of quality assurance for pharmacy education and teaching are based mainly on resources and management not competences. Furthermore, they are national, obligatory, and do not recognize all the current activities of the pharmacists. The PHAR-QA system that will be developed by the consortium of the same name will be based on competences; it will be European, consultative, and will encompass pharmacy practice in a wide sense.