Careers 360 English Edition – July 2019

Medical Education Special PHARMA STUDIES

TOP PHARMACY

INSTITUTES IN INDIA 2019

A critical link in medical education, pharmacy studies in the

country is diverse and growing but institutions dedicated to the

domain have been few and far between. Here we rank the best

among them...

A

lthough the influx of students into pharmacy col-

leges in India is high, their recruitment in good

institutions is getting tougher as stiff competition

comes from the same pool as medical school aspirants. As

one prepares to select a college of his/her choice, there are

a series of factors that one considers. However, apart from

how good the placement is or how qualified the faculty is;

it has been observed that one is little concerned over the

fact if the institute offers the choice of courses and elec-

tives that would align with his/her career trajectory and

interest.

Pharmacy encompasses various professional skills, such

as knowledge for drug synthesis, drug-drug and drug-

food/herbal interactions, quality control, dosage form

preparation, detection of degradation products, inventory

management of pharmaceutical products and so on. The

role of a good pharmacist has expanded from just being

responsible for dispensing medicines prescribed by the

physician to cautiously advising patients and different

stakeholders about their judicious administration. The

students entering pharmacy schools should think before-

hand how the institute and its surroundings would help

them in being able to learn and diversify their horizons and

also look beyond the tunnel vision of industrial employ-

ment to the wider fields of public healthcare. Pharmaceu-

tical industry is really keen that there is a robust pipeline of

professional talent that can be brought through to enable

in delivering care for patients. 

The top pharmacy schools in India recognize the impor-

tance of quality education and training and attempt

to address the above issues and concern of students.

Careers360 ranking employs quantifiable parame-

ters such as student-faculty ratio, faculty qualification,

research publications in international indices such as

Elsevier’s Scopus and Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Sci-

ence, average citations, intellectual property and median

salary through own research and authentic data sources

such as MHRD’s NIRF, institute’s official website and

publicly available data and reports. This exercise helps in

facilitating the students to take a sensible decision as they

move a step further in their career. Think, and take a wise

decision!

Ranking methodology

Similar to the comprehensive assessment exercise of

Medical Schools, a shortlist of 200 Pharmacy schools was

identified and assessed after evaluating them on publica-

tion count in international bibliometric databases Scopus

and Web of Science, average citations, their intellectual

property records, student intake, faculty count, PhD quali-

fication, placement records and such information. The

figure below gives the assessment indicators and their

weighted score. (Detailed methodology is given in the

medical school assessment). Based on the score obtained

we list the top 25 institutes each in public and private

institutes’ category.

Ranking Schema: Indian Pharmacy Schools Weightage Score

Student & Faculty Quality 30% 150

Learning & Recognition 30% 150

Research Publications 20% 100

Intellectual Property Impact 5% 25

Placements 15% 75

by Nimesh Chandra