Quality by Design in Education (QbDE)-A Possible Futuristic Approach to Improve Current Status of Pharmaceutical Education in India

Pharmacy education in India needs a drastic change. In the last decade, there has been uncontrolled spurt in number of pharmacy colleges. But only few of them have infrastructure and experienced faculty members to train and teach the students to become a quality professional. The situation is such that most college managements resort to one or other type of malpractice to seek regulatory approvals and to attract students to their institutions. This must stop and both regulatory bodies and managements need to seriously ponder over the same. In the opinion of the author, extension of quality-by-design (QbD) concept to pharmaceutical education is the one possible way out. QbD is primarily meant for implementation in pharmaceutical industry, where it aims is to build quality into the finished product, without reliance on end testing. Similarly, QbD in education (QbDE) would mean building quality in students through effectively designed policies, curriculum and teaching/training program incorporating continuous evaluation, so that every student has equal quality and employability. Implementation of QbDE, both at macro and micro levels, is expected to help pharmacy students to adapt to the reality of the 21st century and enter active life, the world of work, and society, which is becoming extremely competitive day-by-day. At macro level, QbDE would require establishing policies, procedures and controls that aim at all institutions having similar high quality infrastructure, facilities and faculties so as to produce highly trained students. At the micro level, QbDE tends to focus upon a teaching and training program that aims at all students in a class having similar knowledge and skill set and hence employability, despite that students may be from different backgrounds, levels of intelligence, and capacity to learn. It is the conviction of the author that if QbDE concept is taken seriously, the situation can be significantly improved from the distasteful condition we are in today.