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Monash pharmacy in Middle East

5 October 2005

The Monash Bachelor of Pharmacy is now being taught at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

The dean of the Victorian College of Pharmacy, Professor Colin Chapman, and the faculty manager, Ms Marian Costelloe, have just returned from Sharjah, where they oversaw the first intake of 55 students.

Professor Chapman said he expected enrolments would grow rapidly.

The pharmacy course is being taught under a five-year contract -- signed in April -- between Monash University and the University of Sharjah.

Under the arrangement, Monash will provide its pharmacy curriculum and course material for use, help recruit senior teaching staff, and design a new hospital and separate research building.

Ms Costelloe said the University of Sharjah, established in 1997, was a not-for-profit university with about 5000 undergraduate students in eight colleges.

"It has brand new buildings set in magnificent grounds in one of the most stable and advanced emirates in the Middle East," she said.

Professor Chapman said the collaboration was beneficial to the Victorian College of Pharmacy because Sharjah University was located at one of the world's major international hubs for travel and trade.

"Through the University of Sharjah, we are introducing a modern pharmacy curriculum to the Middle East, along with research programs, and we see this as an exciting opportunity for potential research collaboration and staff and student exchange.

"It is a wonderful opportunity that allows us to be part of the establishment of a truly world-leading pharmacy teaching faculty from the ground up," Professor Chapman said.