Ahmedabad: Industry shy of hiring passouts from the state’s 106 diploma and degree pharmacy colleges

With huge vacancies in the state’s pharma colleges coupled with most pharmacy companies not hiring their graduates, the Gujarat Technological University has decided to revise the curricula for both diploma and degree pharmacy colleges. The revised curriculum is expected to be in place by August 2012.

GTU officials said of the 106 diploma and degree pharmacy colleges in Gujarat, more than 35 are “on the brink of collapse,” meaning trustees of these colleges plan a move from pharma to other sectors as their student intake currently stand at “less than half a dozen” each.

“We are going to have a major update of our syllabus to see that the industry starts seeing value in hiring our B pharma graduates. For this purpose, we shall invite some industry professionals to join with our professors to revise our syllabi,” said GTU...

Vice Chancellor Akshai Aggarwal.

Prof Aggarwal said that the “major setback” for many pharma colleges in the state over the last few years led him to seek opinions from industry heads and senior professors.

The feedback from the industry was that “they preferred to recruit a BSc over a B pharma,” an insight Prof Aggarwal shared with the faculty who said the curriculum revision should wait till at least one batch of students pass out from GTU in April-May 2012 (pharma colleges were affiliated to various universities and came under GTU’s ambit only recently).

The huge vacancy of seats has been plaguing pharma colleges for years now. In 2010, at least three colleges had even approached the GTU for permission to close down when the AICTE allowed an increase of seats from 60 to 180 per college. The administration was apprehensive that rural colleges would suffer from the new policy, since...

students usually prefer colleges in urban areas.

According to the state’s Admission Committee for Professional Courses (ACPC) figures as on August 2011, about 4,000 of the 6,700 seats in 91 pharmacy colleges lay vacant.

Hiranmay Mahanta, coordinator of the GTU’s Innovation Sankul project, said that a recent analysis of 500 pharma projects from across India showed Gujarat’s pharma students are “superb”.

The problem is not aptitude for the subject but lack of a supporting environment, he added.

In fact, several students have filed patents for some of their projects as recently as mid-2011.

These include separate polyherbal formulations that are believed can treat diabetes (type 2), cancer and hypertension. Another patent application is for an anti-Alzheimer drug....