Accreditation

The College of Pharmacy has been a member of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy since 1927. The Doctor of Pharmacy degree program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE); ACPE does not accredit master’s and Ph.D. degrees in pharmacy.

Mission

The University offers a four year Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) as the sole entry-level, professional degree for the practice of pharmacy. Competitive admission to the program occurs after the completion of a series of required prepharmacy courses. This program offers a course of study in the biomedical, pharmaceutical, clinical, and social and behavioral sciences designed to provide the state and the nation with pharmacists who are scientifically educated and clinically competent to deliver a full spectrum of pharmaceutical services in all areas of practice. In meeting its teaching obligation, the college provides a curriculum and faculty that offer students an educational experience beyond training solely for the practice of pharmacy.

The profession of pharmacy has evolved from a role primarily in distribution of medication toward a patient-centered care model. The patient-centered care model is a process through which a pharmacist interacts with the patient and other health care professionals collaboratively in the collection, assessment, planning, implementation, and follow-up of a patient-specific therapeutic plan that will produce the desired therapeutic outcomes. To ensure that graduates have the necessary tools to practice in this complex, patient-centered environment, the pharmacy curriculum has evolved from traditional discipline-specific coursework to a discipline-integrated approach of disease state management and a case-based, team approach to the design of the patient-specific therapeutic plan that includes interprofessional collaborative practice.

The professional curriculum is designed to prepare pharmacy graduates to provide patient-centered pharmaceutical care in a contemporary interprofessional collaborative practice setting, whether a community pharmacy, an ambulatory clinic, a hospital, managed care, or a long-term care facility, as well as to work in the pharmaceutical industry. In addition, the curriculum aims to inculcate an understanding of the basic sciences sufficient to prepare the student for graduate study in the pharmaceutical sciences or post Pharm.D. residency training. These objectives are pursued through a balanced program of study in pharmaceutics, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, therapeutics, pharmacy administration, social and behavioral sciences, and the humanities, as well as a structured clinical and professional practice experiential program. The holder of a professional degree from The University of Texas at Austin has received an education and training as sophisticated as any available in the health professions.

The College of Pharmacy has conducted a joint Pharm.D. degree program with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio since 1974. Students who complete their P3 and P4 experiential courses at the Health Science Center are considered part of this program and receive a degree awarded jointly by the two institutions.

The college has educational affiliations with several other academic health institutions, health-systems, and pharmacy organizations through its five Texas regional internship areas - Austin/Temple/Waco, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston/Galveston, the Rio Grande Valley, and San Antonio.

The college seeks to encourage the belief that education is ongoing and lifelong and that all levels of professional education must form a continuum with professional practice and patient care. To meet this objective, the college provides postgraduate educational programs and develops innovative programs of training through continuing education for the roles pharmacists may be called on to fill as a result of changes in the patterns of delivery of pharmaceutical services.

In addition to the Pharm.D. degree, the University offers the Master of Science in the Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) with a major in the Pharmaceutical Sciences. The College of Pharmacy also participates in interdisciplinary Ph.D. programs in Cellular and Molecular Biology and in Neuroscience. In collaboration with The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and The University of Texas at San Antonio, the College offers an interinstitutional Ph.D. program with a major in Translational Science.  These programs are described in the Graduate Catalog.

History

For more than a century, the University’s College of Pharmacy has provided education and training for men and women as pharmacy practitioners, scientists, professional leaders, and responsible citizens. Eleven students constituted the first class when a school of pharmacy was created in the fall of 1893 at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. In 1927, the program was reorganized as the College of Pharmacy and moved to the Austin campus. The college shared quarters with other University programs until 1952, when the first pharmacy building was opened. Instruction now takes place in facilities designed for the pharmacy program and located near the center of the Austin campus, and on the campus of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

The first undergraduate program consisted of two sessions, each seven months in length. The current Pharm.D. degree program requires six years in pre-professional subjects, biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences, and professional experience courses. Graduate study became available in 1948 with the institution of a Master of Science in Pharmacy degree program. Today programs are also available that lead to the Doctor of Philosophy in the pharmaceutical, administrative, and clinical sciences. More than 8,000 students have graduated from the programs offered by the college; many have achieved state, national, and international prominence in pharmacy or in related health fields.

Academic leadership for pharmaceutical education at the University has been provided by eleven prominent educators, beginning with James Kennedy of San Antonio, who was appointed as a pharmacy professor and director of the Galveston program in 1893. He was succeeded by R. R. D. Cline, who for almost thirty years guided pharmaceutical education in Texas. When the school was moved to Austin in 1927, W. F. Gidley was named the first dean of the college. In 1947, Henry M. Burlage succeeded Professor Gidley as dean. He was succeeded in 1962 by Lee F. Worrell, who served until 1966. Carl C. Albers was acting dean until Joseph B. Sprowls was appointed dean in 1967. William J. Sheffield became acting dean upon the death of Professor Sprowls in 1971. He was succeeded in 1973 by James T. Doluisio, who served the college for 25 years. Steven Leslie served as dean from 1998 until 2007, when M. Lynn Crismon assumed the leadership of the college.

University pharmacy students receive instruction in the basic biomedical sciences, the pharmaceutical sciences, pharmacy administration, and pharmacy practice in state-of-the-art academic and health care facilities. Pharmacy interns expand their professional practice knowledge and skills at clinical education sites in the Austin/Temple/Waco area, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, the Texas Medical Center in Houston, and The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

Facilities

The Pharmacy Building

In addition to well-equipped classrooms, laboratories, and offices, the pharmacy building provides a learning resource center, a television production laboratory and classrooms, and pharmaceutical technology laboratories with facilities for product development, pilot manufacturing, sterile production and quality control, and stability testing. The University Health Services Pharmacy also serves as a teaching laboratory for second-year pharmacy students while providing comprehensive pharmaceutical services to the student community. Space assigned to the college in the Biomedical Engineering Building, Dell Pediatric Research Institute, and the Health Discovery Building expands pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, and pharmaceutics research space.

Pharmacy Facilities in San Antonio

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio has provided facilities for the education and training of pharmacy students, residents, and fellows since 1972. The McDermott Clinical Sciences Building on the Health Science Center campus, which houses the pharmacotherapy division of the college and the Pharmacotherapy Education and Research Center, provides a state-of-the-art distance education classroom, a student computer laboratory, research laboratories, and offices for faculty and staff members. The Division of Pharmacotherapy maintains a broad range of affiliation agreements with institutions in San Antonio that provide extensive training opportunities in a variety of practice settings. Research opportunities exist in the areas of infectious disease, oncology, anticoagulation, stroke prevention, and psychiatry.

Office of Pharmacy Continuing Education

As part of a state university, the College of Pharmacy recognizes obligations to the profession of pharmacy on a state, national, and international level. The college began providing continuing education to pharmacists in 1953 in cooperation with the University Extension. Today, the college is an ACPE-approved provider of continuing pharmaceutical education. A primary goal of the Office of Pharmacy Continuing Education is to advance the pharmacist’s knowledge and provide the skills necessary to adapt to a changing practice. Toward this end, the office offers a variety of programs, including home-study courses, seminars, multiday conferences, and certificate programs addressing the most current practice issues. Programs are conducted both on and off campus and by correspondence and distance learning. Annually, the office provides about 350 contact hours of continuing education programming to more than 6,500 pharmacists across the United States.

Learning Resource Center

The college’s Learning Resource Center (LRC) offers a variety of instructional resources to students and faculty members. The LRC provides state-of-the-art digital video teleconferencing transmission of courses among the Austin campus, the Health Science Center at San Antonio, and other sites in the University of Texas System, so that faculty members can teach students at two or more locations simultaneously. Most courses are recorded and made available by video streaming. The LRC also operates the Delgado Library, a multipurpose, nontraditional facility with individual and small-group study spaces, and seminar rooms.

Libraries

The Life Science Library supports the teaching and research missions of the College of Pharmacy by providing access to an extensive array of print and electronic information resources. The library maintains extensive holdings in pharmacology, pharmaceutics, pharmacy administration, and medicinal chemistry, with supporting materials in medicine and nutrition. Biochemistry and medicinal chemistry material is complemented by the collections of the Mallet Chemistry Library. Medical material is supplemented by additional material in nursing, pediatrics, and psychiatry at the Perry-Castañeda Library. Extensive collections in the social sciences and business provide additional support for the interdisciplinary interests of health outcomes and pharmacy practice. Current journal holdings are primarily online, while books are acquired in print or digitally as eBooks.

Financial Assistance Available through the College

Students entering the first year of the professional curriculum may be eligible for certain college-based scholarships, and information is provided to students regarding these scholarships upon matriculation. Students who have completed the first year of the professional curriculum are eligible to apply for all scholarships and loans offered through the College of Pharmacy. Eligibility and application information is available at http://pharmacy.utexas.edu/students/financial-aid/ and in the Office of Student Affairs, Pharmacy Building 5.112.

Scholarship opportunities with the College of Pharmacy include Endowed Presidential Scholarships with a minimum of $2,500, and other endowed scholarships with a minimum of $1,500. Students must meet eligibility requirements, and in some cases additional criteria, to be awarded these scholarships. Additional college scholarships are funded by various pharmacy associations, individuals, employers, and organizations. These scholarships are awarded, as they become available, through The University of Texas College of Pharmacy at the direction of the college's Financial Aid Committee.

Loan Funds

The Klinck Family Loan Funds

These loan funds were established by the Klinck family of McAllen, Texas, to assist students in need of financial assistance. Emergency short-term loans, for a maximum of $500 are available and must be paid back the same semester the loan is taken out. Long-term loans of up to $2,500 are available to pharmacy students who demonstrate financial need. Students may apply for more than one loan, but except in unusual circumstances the loans will total no more than $5,000. Visit the Klinck Family Loan Funds site for more information.

Student Services

Academic Advising

Academic advising is an ongoing activity of the Office of Student Affairs, Pharmacy Building 5.112. Because advising is not restricted to the time just before registration, all students are strongly encouraged to seek advice whenever they have questions about degree requirements, the availability of course offerings each semester, and taking courses in proper sequence.

Career Services

The college provides career counseling to students in the professional sequence of courses. Throughout the year, staff is available in the Office of Student Affairs to assist students in examining the career options available to them upon graduation.