From Apprentice to Graduate 50 Years of Pharmacy Education at the University of Otago, 1963-2013

  

In 2013 the School of Pharmacy at the University of Otago celebrates its 50th Jubilee, a milestone that also represents 50 years of a degree qualification for New Zealand pharmacists and the first four-year pharmacy degree in Australasia. The School started life as the Department of Pharmacy in 1960, but at the end of 1962 became the joint Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy. The first three students completed their degree in 1965, graduating with a Bachelor of Pharmacy. In marked contrast, in December 2012, 138 students graduated.

To celebrate the 50th Jubilee an exhibition titled From Apprentice to Graduate, 50 Years of Pharmacy Education at the University of Otago, 1963-2013 will start on 5 April at the de Beer Gallery, Special Collections. It will run through to 25 June 2013.

The majority of the exhibition spans the history of pharmacy education in New Zealand from the nineteenth century, when pharmacists were apprentices who compounded the majority of their medicines on site, through to the present day university-trained graduates.  Efforts to raise the standard of pharmacy education became particularly prominent in New Zealand after the end of the Second World War which was also a time of rapid change in healthcare and medicines. While the pharmacist's role of making medicines declined, calls arose about the need for the pharmacist to be 'an expert on drugs'. Controversy developed as to where pharmacy education should take place and to what level. In 1958 the government decided that most pharmacists from 1960 would train through a two-year full-time course at the Central Technical College at Petone near Wellington with the university degree course at the University of Otago reserved for a small number of pharmacists requiring more advanced train  ing. The 'problem' of pharmacy education would continue until 4 May 1989 when the Associate Minister of Education announced that all pharmacists should have a degree as a minimum professional qualification.

Notable items on display include Gerard's Herbal (1633), Pliny's explanation on the power of daffodil in curing ills, a 1928-1931 prescription book, an apprentice's indenture agreement, a selection of New Zealand medicine bottles (circa 1890s to 1930s) student magazines and other items related to the history of pharmacy education in New Zealand.

The exhibition coincides with the School of Pharmacy 50th Jubilee being held from 12-14 April 2013. For more details go to: http://pharmacy.otago.ac.nz/50th-jubilee

Hours: 8.30 to 5.00, Monday to Friday

Venue: de Beer Gallery, Special Collections, 1st floor, Central University Library

For further details, please contact curators Dr Susan Heydon (susan.heydon@otago.ac.nz>) and Dr Michael Bagge (michael.bagge@otago.ac.nz))>, School of Pharmacy, or Dr Donald Kerr, Special Collections Librarian (donald.kerr@otago.ac.nz>)