Page 23 - Pharmacy careers guide

Academia
Academic pharmacists are faculty members of an educational institute and are crucial to the teaching and training of future pharmacists, as well as driving research in various aspects of health.
Working in academia comes with many benefits such as the chance to contribute to scientific and clinical knowledge, enhance personal careers, personal satisfaction from teaching or supervising students and the opportunity to collaborate with other professionals.
Although academics are required to be able to balance heavy administrative loads and keep to strict deadlines, working within this field can be rewarding and beneficial when transitioning to other fields of pharmacy such as industry.
Year corrdinator
Course corrdinator
Areas of academia
This is not an all inclusive list of the job positions available in academia. The duties and requirements listed for each job position may differ among universities.
learning and teaching
• Develops education material
• Writes new curricula
• Conducts lectures, tutorials, workshops and
practice sessions
• Organises and marks assessments
• Responds to student enquiries
• Maintains websites and student portals
• Gains professional development in teaching skills
for e.g. by mentoring or teaching courses
Research and innovation
• Supervises postgraduate students
• Employs and supervises research assistants
• Discusses area of research at laboratory meetings,
seminars and conferences
• Participates and contributes abstracts for
conferences
• Reads and writes journal articles and books
Community engagement
• Talks to prospective students on information days at the university
• Visits schools to talk about pharmacy as a career
• Participates in public debate about health
issues for e.g. on television programs, writing an
opinion articles
• Engages in research within the community
Qualifications/experience
• Generally, permanent academic positions require PhD degree
• To enrol in a PhD, the applicant must have prior research experience such as completion of an Honours degree
• If the applicant has no previous research experience, consider completing a Master or Degree before enrolling in a PhD
If interested in practice‐based research, experience as a registered pharmacist is important.
Research supervisor
BPharm coordinator
Researcher
Workshop tutor
Lecturer
Academia
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