Program Overview

Faculty of Pharm D

Introduction

The PharmD Program duration is six years, five academic years and one year of internship. During the first academic year, pharmaceutical basic sciences will be taught, whereas during the next four years, academic, professional pharmaceutical and clinical sciences will be studied.

Program Structure

The program applies advanced teaching and practical learning strategies and developed evaluation methods to enable the student's acquisition of competencies in various pharmaceutical fields. It allows the student to practice the pharmacy career in different pharmaceutical fields, giving him the opportunity to concentrate on the area of specialty he aims to work in after graduation through optional courses offered in the final stages of the program, internship year, and graduation project.

Internship Period

The internship period is designed to offer the student rotating training sessions in different pharmaceutical areas, concentrating on students' chosen areas of specialty. The period includes 100 in-site training hours in community, governmental, and hospital pharmacies during summer vacations. After graduation, students will have to work in the same area of specialty they have chosen for 2 years to become a specialist pharmacist.

Academic Semesters and Registration

The duration of study in the undergraduate PharmD program is five years (five levels divided into 10 semesters) full-time study according to the system of credit hours adopted, in addition to an advanced training year (internship) in the workplace (5+1). The academic year is divided into three semesters:

1. The fall semester starts at the beginning of the fourth week of September and continues for not less than 15 weeks, excluding the midterm and final examinations.
2. The spring semester starts at the beginning of the third week of February and continues for not less than 15 weeks, excluding the midterm and the final examinations.
3. The summer semester, which is a condensed semester, starts at the beginning of the first week of July and continues for not less than 8 weeks, excluding the final examinations.

Course and Laboratory Attendance

The student is not allowed to attend the final exam of a course unless he/she attended at least 75% of the study hours of the course. In this case, the student will be considered as "Forced Withdrawn" and the course will appear in his certificate as (FW), and will not be accounted in calculating the CGPA.

Course Codes

The undergraduate courses are coded according to the following scheme:

• AAA: Program code offering the course
• N1: Class level (1-5) in which the course is typically offered
• N2: Semester (1 or 2) in which the course is typically offered
• N3: Sequence of the courses among its specialized area

Pharmacy Areas of Specializations and Their Codes

• PIP: Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy
• PHG: Pharmacognosy
• PMC: Medicinal Chemistry
• PMI: Microbiology and Immunology
• PBM: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• PCT: Pharmacology and Toxicology
• PCP: Clinical Pharmacy

Grading System

The final grade and the grade point in a course are based on the total aggregate of marks earned from all activities done in the course, including periodicals, practical, oral, and final written exam. The minimum success limit for a student to pass is 60% (except for the human rights course and university requirements, where the minimum pass rate is 50% and is not added to the student's cumulative GPA).

• Percentage marks | Grades | Grade Points
  • ≥ 95% | Excellent | 4.00 | A+
  • ≥ 90% - less than 95% | | 3.70 | A
  • ≥ 85% - less than 90% | Very good | 3.30 | B+
  • ≥ 80% - less than 85% | | 3.00 | B
  • ≥ 75% - less than 80% | Good | 2.70 | C+
  • ≥ 70% - less than 75% | | 2.30 | C
  • ≥ 65% - less than 70% | Pass | 2.00 | D+
  • ≥ 60% - less than 65% | | 1.70 | D
  • Less than 60% | Fail | 1.00 | F

Additional Grades

In addition to the above grade, the following grades may appear in the student semester transcript:

• W: Withdrawn; a student was enrolled in a credit course and withdrew from the course before the tenth week.
• WF: Withdrawn failing; a student was enrolled in a credit course and withdrew from the course after the tenth week.
• FW: Forced withdrawal; Students who do not achieve the minimum attendance of the course sessions.

Repetition of Courses

Courses in which a student received a grade of D+, or D may be repeated. Repetition more than once requires the approval of the PharmD Program Council. If a student takes the same course more than once, all grades will appear on the student's record. The student will receive credit for the course only once, which is the most recently earned grade and will be used in computing the cumulative GPA.

GPA Calculation

To calculate the GPA for one semester:

1. Multiply the point value of the letter grade by the number of credit hours.
2. Total the credit hours for the semester.
3. Total the quality points for the semester.
4. Divide the total quality points by the total credit hours. To calculate the cumulative GPA:
5. Calculate GPA for each semester.
6. Total the credit hours from all semesters.
7. Total the quality points from all semesters.
8. Divide the total quality points for all semesters by the total credit hours for all semesters.

Degree Requirements

To obtain a PharmD undergraduate degree, the student must successfully pass 179 credit hours for all areas of specializations with an average score of not less than GPA 2.00. A student will be transferred from level 1 to level 2 after successfully completing 36 credit hours, and from level 2 to level 3 after successfully completing 70 credit hours, from level 3 to level 4 after completing 108 credit hours, and from level 4 to level 5 after successfully completing 145 credit hours.