Pharmacy school joins with Singapore

UNC is looking to the east to give its pharmacy students more opportunities.

The University’s Eshelman School of Pharmacy is in the early stages of planning a joint pharmacy degree with the National University of Singapore. The specifics of the program are unknown, as administrators are still assessing the pros and cons of the partnership.

UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp and the NUS President Tan Chorh Chuan have endorsed a letter of intent, but the joint degree likely will not be launched until 2013 or 2014, pharmacy school Dean Bob Blouin said.

Information about the partnership has also been shared with the UNC-system Board of Governors, he said.

The board wanted more details to make sure the new partnership would not detract from other in-state partnerships, said Jim Deal, chairman of the board’s educational planning, policies and programs committee.

The planning for the joint degree program will proceed depending on complete financial sponsorship by NUS.

Establishing a footprint in Asia will yield dividends for the state economy in many ways, Blouin said.

“Many businesses and universities are trying to figure out how to view themselves in the flat world,” he said. “The UNC brand in Singapore will be powerful and helpful.”

There are already several pharmaceutical companies like GlaxoSmithKline with locations in both North Carolina and Singapore, he said.
But UNC will only continue with the planning process if there is no brain or resource drain for the state, Blouin said.

He also said UNC has been carefully tracking the partnership between Duke University School of Medicine and NUS as a point of reference.
“For Duke, the main reason was to develop a global presence in research and medical education and to develop and innovate medical education,” said Ranga Krishnan, dean of the Duke-NUS program.

Blouin said the partnership with NUS will not affect the in-state accreditation partnerships between UNC and Elizabeth City State University and UNC-Asheville.

ECSU does not have its own pharmacy school because it would not make sense for the state to pay for its development when UNC has such a reputable school, said ECSU Chancellor Willie Gilchrist.

However, UNC’s pharmacy school is able to accredit students at ECSU in the hope that more pharmacists will be working in the northeastern part of the state, where there is great demand, he said.

“Many youngsters tend to stay in the areas they are degreed in,” he said.

UNC’s partnerships allow demands for pharmacists to be met across the state, Blouin said.

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