Edited by: Dominique J. Dubois, Free University of Brussels, Belgium
Reviewed by: Peter David Stonier, King’s College London, United Kingdom; Honorio Silva, IFAPP Academy, Inc., United States; Brian Godman, Karolinska Institutet (KI), Sweden
This article was submitted to Pharmaceutical Medicine and Outcomes Research, a section of the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
As the complexity of the pharmaceutical industry increases and with the current disruptive forces affecting it, there is an increasing need for suitably-qualified personnel. Universities must respond to the need for graduates with the appropriate skills and knowledge to enable the transformation and future growth of this industry. Restructuring educational offerings to focus on graduate attributes, such as analytical and critical thinking, collaboration and problem solving, creativity, flexibility and self-direction in the context of the pharmaceutical industry facilitates the changes needed for future growth and viability. This paper discusses the process of program transformation to enable the development of graduates who can respond to these challenges in the pharmaceutical industry.
It is said that we now live in a VUCA world: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous; a scenario that can be applied across a number of industries including healthcare and education (
There is a growing need for qualified personnel to meet the demands of the pharmaceutical industry as therapeutics become more complex, the clinical and regulatory environments become more complicated, pricing environments become more restrictive and demands from patients and healthcare providers for education about therapeutics increase. With increasing pressures on the current operating model for large pharmaceutical companies and an increase in outsourcing critical functions, such as early stage research and development, clinical trials and regulatory affairs in Australia, there is an increased need for higher education institutions to deliver adequately trained employees who can hit the road running and provide immediate value to their employers (
At the same time, higher education is undergoing a transformation in the way education is being delivered worldwide, with an emphasis on digital transformation and skills development to ensure graduates are equipped to meet the significant disruptive forces affecting many industries and societies today and into the future (
With this context in mind, it was an opportune time to review the Master of Medical Science in Drug Development program, which had been provided by UNSW Sydney for 20 years. UNSW Sydney is one of Australia’s largest research-intensive universities with a student body of over 50,000 and 6,000 staff. At the same time as this review of the program, the university was implementing an ambitious strategy that includes a commitment to academic excellence by embracing digital innovation, the formation of communities, inspired teaching methodologies, incorporating students as partners in educational reform, and closing the loop with greater feedback and dialogue between all partners in the educational endeavor.
The Drug Development program had originally been designed in an era focusing on didactic, instructivist education with an emphasis on knowledge delivery using early models of distance education that relied heavily on large volumes of paper-based notes, individual assignments and summative exam assessments (
To ensure the program remains relevant to the rapidly-changing pharmaceutical environment, a process was developed to systematically review and restructure the program based on sound pedagogical principles and the local pharmaceutical industry requirements (
Curriculum redesign process.
The starting point for the development of the revised program was to articulate the mission of the program, which is to produce graduates with the knowledge and skills to make a meaningful contribution to medicines research, development and access, working across the pharmaceutical industry, academia and government, with the goal of improving the health and wellbeing of the community. Therefore, the program was aimed at people wanting to pursue a range of career possibilities in pharmaceutical drug discovery and development, medical device development, preclinical testing, clinical trials, drug safety and pharmacovigilance, regulatory affairs, medical and scientific communications, medical affairs, product compliance or health technology assessment within industry, regulatory agencies, academia or government health departments. Students enter the program with a variety of prior qualifications and knowledge: healthcare professionals (physicians, pharmacists, nurses, veterinarians), scientists with undergraduate qualifications, other Masters’ degrees or PhDs (in pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences, molecular biology, biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, medical science, biological science) and a small proportion with arts, psychology or law degrees.
Besides a thorough review of the existing content, a benchmark analysis of existing programs was conducted to identify areas of commonality and consensus. Stakeholders were surveyed to refine the elements needed for the revised program, identify gaps in coverage of the existing program and look at the future directions of the industry, the skills and knowledge that would be required by graduates in their careers (
Program-level learning outcomes.
Advanced disciplinary knowledge and practice | Graduates will be able to demonstrate an advanced understanding of pharmaceutical medicine and the development process for new therapeutic products and apply their knowledge to new developments and approaches within this area. |
Enquiry-based learning | Graduates will have the ability to ask the appropriate questions, find relevant information using their digital and information literacy skills and develop the required plans and documents to facilitate their contributions to the development and maintenance of therapeutic products. |
Cognitive skills and critical thinking | Graduates will be able to understand, critically appraise and apply information and literature in the field of pharmaceutical medicine to inform development of new therapeutic products or strategies for success of new and existing products. |
Communication, adaptive and interactional skills | Graduates will demonstrate the ability to effectively communicate complex, relevant subject matter relating to pharmaceutical medicine to diverse audiences. They will have the appropriate skills of flexibility and adaptability in working collaboratively with others in teams to achieve specified outcomes in a time-bound environment. Graduates will show leadership and initiative in areas of their focus within pharmaceutical medicine. |
Global outlook | Graduates will have a thorough knowledge and understanding of the global arena in which therapeutic products are developed, regulated, priced and marketed. |
Ethics | Graduates will reflect on and critique the role of ethics in the therapeutics industry and develop a personal ethical framework for working within the area of pharmaceutical medicine. |
The redevelopment of courses within the program followed a competency-based model that included bringing together teams of academics, industry experts, alumni and current students, as described by
In their courses, students form communities of practice with the others in their course by contributing to the weekly discussion forums and working together in teams to complete assessment tasks and activities designed into the curriculum (
The other important element in redesigning programs is to ensure there is constructive alignment between the program-level learning outcomes, the course-level learning outcomes, the activities and assessments that students undertake (
Assessment tasks for one course before and after restructure.
PHAR9101 (2013) | PHAR9101 (2019) |
---|---|
Quiz 10% | Group project – online wiki 40% |
Individual responses to online exercises 10% | Individual essay assignment 30% |
Individual assignment (3 parts) 40% | Online discussion forum contributions 15% |
Invigilated final exam 40% | Individual reflective journal 15% |
The only synchronous activities scheduled are the webinars, which are held once a week, in the evenings, to facilitate student participation. Course moderators and tutors often present a lecture and discuss case studies with students during these sessions, and these conversations continue in asynchronous discussion forums which are moderated by the tutors. In several courses, students are required to give presentations in the webinars and lead discussion on their presentations. The internship course provides hands-on experience for students wanting to deepen their practice in a particular area, such as regulatory affairs, medical affairs, clinical research, etc. Placements are available to students in companies, with the regulator or academia. This aspect of the program enables students to develop level four competencies on Miller’s pyramid by documenting performance integrated into practice (
The program is delivered fully online using the affordances of the Moodle learning management system and the internet (
The ability to maintain currency of information in a fast-evolving industry
A desire to improve collaboration between students located distantly from each other (an essential skill for working in the multinational pharmaceutical industry)
A desire to increase self-evaluation and peer-evaluation (
The need to equip students with 21st century skills: digital and information literacy, critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, persistence, collaboration and teamwork, flexibility and adaptability, leadership, initiative and self-direction (
The impact of changes to the program has been measured initially by both qualitative and quantitative methods. Success of the program transformation process has been and continues to be evaluated using student satisfaction feedback, analysis of their active engagement in the learning activities, assessment grades and employment outcomes. To date, there has been an increase in student engagement and collaboration throughout the program. This is seen with the increased numbers of posts to online discussion forums, which have increased from approximately three posts/student/course to 12 posts/student/course between 2015 and 2017. As well, students are responding to each other’s posts and developing deep conversations around the course topics and scenarios provided in these discussion forums. Furthermore, students value the opportunity to engage and learn with each other: “
Overall student satisfaction ratings across the program have increased from 4.3+/-1.2 to 5.1+/-0.4 (from a total score out of 6) between 2013 and 2017, providing evidence that students are seeing the benefit of the new alignment and learning and teaching style. Student grades have increased very slightly over the transition to a fully online program, showing consistency in learning even though student cohorts have changed over the years with slightly more now transitioning from another career. Academic staff teaching into the program have undertaken further postgraduate study in higher education. Industry- and government-based casual lecturers who currently teach on the program have significant experience with over 60% having appointments at director level or above in their own workplace. This greater expertise of all the teachers in the program is reflected by the higher student satisfaction ratings.
Finally, graduate employment levels are high for the program, with approximately 87% of graduates working in industry by their graduation (up from between 33 and 50% working in industry on entry to the program). In addition, approximately 80% of those who were working in industry at entry to the program managed to transition roles into the one they wanted or gained a promotion by graduation, including some who have taken promotions to positions based overseas. Further evaluation of the impact of the program transformation is planned and will include long-term follow-up of students after graduation, particularly reviewing transfer of learning to the workplace and career progression (
In conclusion, the Master of Pharmaceutical Medicine program at UNSW Sydney is now delivered as a fully online program using the affordances of the digital environment to develop capable graduates ready to take on challenging careers in the pharmaceutical industry. Their capabilities are developed through authentic learning experiences involving active experiential learning using problem-based scenarios focused on real-life situations to develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Additionally, students are learning in a connected environment that mirrors many of the interactions and situations they will face in their workplace, as we become more globally connected and work increasingly in digitally connected teams. As the working world changes, so too must the roles of educators and higher education continue to evolve. Thus, the delivery mode of the program is agile and able to be quickly adapted to meet future industry needs for skilled graduates, with Faculty acting not only as knowledge-experts, but as learning facilitators, for our students.
The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.
OC was responsible for the concept and writing of this paper and takes full accountability for the content.
The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The handling Editor DD and reviewers PS and HS declared their involvement as co-editors in the Research Topic, and confirm the absence of any other collaboration.
OC acknowledges the help of Dr. Johnson Liu, UNSW Sydney, in reviewing and commenting on the draft manuscript.