Rules/Regulations relating to Doctor of pharmacy (Pharm-D)

Title and Commencement

These regulations may be called Pharm-D Regulations 2011 and shall come into force w.e.f academic session 2011-12.

Duration of the Programme

1. The programmes leading to Pharm-D shall be of five years duration (ten regular semesters) excluding summer semesters.
2. The courses of study for Pharm-D programme shall be split into First Professional, Second Professional, Third Professional, Fourth Professional and Fifth Professional, each of which shall be of two semesters duration.
3. The student has to complete the degree requirements within fifteen (15) regular semesters (7-1/2 years) from the date of his/her admission in Pharm-D program (including the period of the semester(s) declared to have been frozen, availed/ un-availed).
4. Each regular semester shall be spread over minimum duration of sixteen weeks of teaching.

Admissions

1. The following shall be the minimum academic qualifications for admission of a candidate to the First Professional of Doctor of Pharmacy degree course, namely:
   Priority 1: The candidate shall have passed the Intermediate Science (FSc) Examination (Medical Group), or an equivalent examination from a Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education in Pakistan.
   OR
   The candidate shall have passed an examination of a foreign institution or examining body, which is equivalent to the Intermediate (FSc) Examination (Medical Group) of a Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education in Pakistan, which would be certified/ascertained. Equivalence certificate to be determined by Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC)/HEC.
   Priority 2: The candidate shall have passed a higher examination of a Pakistani university with Biological Sciences provided that he/she has passed the Intermediate (FSc) Examination (Pre-Medical Group) from a Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education in Pakistan. The admission granted on this qualification will not exceed 10% of the total seats.
2. The optimum number of annual admissions of students in the First Professional in the Pharmacy department shall not be more than one hundred, including the reserved seats, in each session subject to the capacity of lecture rooms and the facilities in the laboratories and libraries. However, the number of sessions will not be more than one in an academic year.
3. A candidate seeking admission to the Pharmacy department shall possess adequate mental and physical health.
4. University may allocate seats for children of the registered pharmacists provided that such seats shall not exceed five percent of the total annual admissions of students in the First Professional.
5. University may allocate up to 2% of un-availed seats specified in section 3.4 under non-subsidized program in the First Professional for children of the proprietors, partners and directors of pharmaceutical industry provided they offer donations in shape of cash/equipment/chemicals worth of at least Rs.1,00,000/year.
6. Admission of students to the Pharmacy department including that to reserved seats shall be strictly on merit in accordance with regulation 5.1, and regional/other quota (like armed forces, disabled etc.) as approved by the syndicate of the University.
7. Every admitted student shall have minimum 60% marks.

Exemption of course(s)

1. candidate seeking transfer of credits and exemption of course(s) must have obtained admission in the BS/Pharm.D programs according to the prescribed procedure of this University. Once the admission is obtained, the candidate may submit an application for transfer of credit to Dean of the faculty through Chairperson/Director of the concerned Department/School/Institute/Centre.
2. The application for transfer of credits and subsequent exemption of course(s) will be sent to the concerned department/school for consideration by the Departmental Assessment and Accreditation Committee(DAAC) comprising of Chairperson/Director and two other senior most faculty members of the Department/School/Institute/Centre.
3. The committee will make its recommendations in the light of the following policy guidelines.
   1. The maximum exemption for course work shall be upto 51 credit hours.
   2. The exemption would be given only for those courses which are taught in the first two years at QAU;
   3. The recommendations of the Committee will be submitted to the Dean of the Faculty concerned for approval who then shall forward the case to the Controller of Examinations for further necessary action;
   4. Only the courses with at least C grade or GPA 2 out of 4 will be considered to be exempted.
   5. Only the courses passed from the HEC recognized University/Institution will be considered for transfer of credits. In case of professional degrees like Pharm.D, the courses to be considered for transfer of Credits/exemption must have also been recognized by the relevant Council.
4. The fee to be charged from the applicant at the time of transfer of credits/exemption shall be Rs. 2000/- (Rupees two thousand) per course.
5. The grade transcript of a student who is given exemption of courses will show the grades/marks for only those courses which he/she register at QAU.
6. The student shall be provided a Certificate from the QAU listing the courses that have been exempted and for which the transfer of credits has been allowed.
7. GPA and CGPA will be computed on the basis of the courses that are registered at QAU only.

Registration of Courses and University Fees and Dues

1. A student shall register in the course(s) being offered by the department as per schedule announced for the semester.
2. Each student of the Pharm-D programme shall be required to pay tuition fee and such other dues as may be determined by the Syndicate from time to time.
3. A student is required to take 18-21 credit hours course work per regular semester. “However, in case of a combination of course work with labs, the Chairperson of the department may allow a maximum of 24 credit hours courses/labs in one semester on the approval of the Dean concerned.”

Credit Hours

1. A credit hour means teaching a theory course for one hour each week throughout the semester.
2. One credit hour in laboratory or experimental work would require laboratory courses of three conduct hours per week.

Freezing of a Semester

1. If a regularly registered student does not wish to pursue his/her studies in a particular semester, he/she may request for freezing of the said semester.  If the permission is so granted the student can continue his/her studies after the said period is over.
2. A student will not be allowed freezing of the first semester of his/her studies.
3. A student shall be allowed to apply for freezing of at the most two semesters in his/her entire program of study. The application must be submitted within four weeks from the commencement of classes. Only in exceptional circumstances of medical emergency of the student or fatality of immediate family member, the University may allow freezing of semester after four weeks.
4. The case for freezing of the semester shall be placed before the Dean of the faculty by the chairman/chairperson of the Pharmacy department and the decision shall be communicated to the Controller of Examinations.
5. Being allowed a semester freeze by the Dean of the faculty, the student who has deposited/paid the tuition fee for the frozen semester may request for refund. In such case the University shall deduct 25% of the tuition fee deposited and remaining 75% shall be reimbursed to student.
6. The student has to complete the degree requirements within fifteen semesters (7-1/2 years) from the date of his/her admission to First Professional (including the period of the semester(s) declared to have been frozen).

Attendance

1. A student must have attended at least 80% of the classes held in a course in order to be allowed to sit in the terminal semester examination.
2. The Chairperson may condone, for valid reasons, deficiency up to 5% of the total lectures and Dean of the faculty on recommendation of the chairperson may on special grounds condone up to another 5% of the total lectures (especially for students participating in extracurricular activities duly recommended/nominated by the University).
3. The attendance of the student will be counted from 1st day of the semester and not from the date of admission.
4. Students having less than the prescribed class attendance in a particular course will be required to repeat the course or its substitute course as and when shall be offered.

Examinations & Evaluation

1. There shall be a perpetual evaluation system of the student’s performance. In addition to home assignments, term papers, quizzes class presentations and lab work, the following examinations in each course during the semester shall be held:
   1. Semester Sessional Examination of 1½ -3 hours duration having weightage of 25-50%. At least two sessional tests will be conducted for each course.
   2. Semester’s Terminal Examination  of 3-4 hours duration having a weightage of 50%
2. There shall be 100 marks assigned to each course.
3. The Semester Sessional Examination shall be held at any time between 5th   and 14th week of the semester. The terminal examination of the semester shall be held at the end of the semester.
4. Eligibility to appear in the terminal examination of a semester:
   1. No student shall be eligible to appear in the terminal examination unless he/she is registered at the University for the respective semester and has paid all the required dues.
   2. A student must have attended at least 80% of the classes held in a course in order to be allowed to sit in the terminal semester examination. However, the Chairperson may grant a relaxation as provided in 8.2 above.
   3. A student must have submitted all assignments, term papers and reports by the end of teaching for semester. For laboratory courses external evaluation shall be held at the end of every second semester. The external examiners shall be associated with local or internal examiners in written, oral and practical parts of examination.
5. Special terminal examination a course or courses in a semester will take place during the semester break before the commencement of next semester.
6.  A special examination shall be conducted for a student who is unable to appear in the terminal examination of course(s) on medical grounds or the demise of parent, spouse, children and brother/sister provided the incident/medical condition occur during or within two weeks prior to terminal examination. To appear in Special examination:
   1. A student must have met the eligibility criteria to appear in the terminal examination of a semester.
   2.  The student shall have to produce the death certificate of the kin referred to above.
   3. A student shall have to submit an application of illness to the Dean of faculty on or before the date of commencement of the examination/paper as the case may be.
   4. In case of serious illness of the student, he/she must provide evidence of having been hospitalized or receiving indoor treatment in a recognized private or a public sector hospital.
   5.  A student shall have to apply to the department to appear in a special examination. The case shall be examined by the ‘departmental Grievance Committee’ and recommendations of the committee shall be placed before the Dean through the chairman/chairperson of the department for approval.
7. Chairperson of the department will monitor the conduct of special terminal examinations and ensure the standards.
8. There would be two chances on medical grounds to appear in especially conducted examinations during entire program of studies.
9.  External examiners shall always be associated with internal examiners for evaluation of laboratory courses at the end of even semester. The Dean will approve one external examiner for laboratory/clinical courses out of three proposed by the Chairperson.
10. Examination section of the University shall declare results of theory courses as well as the labs at the end of each semester.

Marks, Grade Points, Letter Grades

1. The progress of a student shall be monitored in each semester on the basis of his/her academic performance in the semester as measured by the number of courses passed and Grade Point Average (GPA). The GPA for each semester shall be calculated as follows:
   
2. Letter grades will be used only for individual courses and not for semester GPA or CGPA. Grade points for each letter grade are given below:
   

   >Marks Range	Grade Point	Grade
   80 and above	4.00	A
   76-79	3.80	A-
   72-75	3.50	B+
   68-71	3.00	B
   64-67	2.80	B-
   60-63	2.50	C+
   55-59	2.00	C
   50-54	1.00	D
   0-49	0	F

   *fraction is to be rounded to the nearest whole Number.

3. The general expectation associated with each letter grade is as follows:
   
4. The percentage of marks or values of grades other than grade points shall not be reported on the transcripts whether they are relative grades or absolute grades.
5. There shall be an honor board maintained in the respective Deans’ Office.
6. The names of those students earning 3.8 CGPA shall be displayed on honor board.
7. Name of student would remain on honor list if he/she maintains a CGPA of 3.8

Promotion & Probation

1. No student shall be promoted to the next professional year until he/she passes courses of 32 credits hours of previous professional year examination provided that no student will be promoted to 3rd, 4th and 5th professional year until he/she has passed ALL the courses of 1st, 2nd and 3rd Professional year respectively.
2. Any student who fails to pass the first semester in five consecutive semester and for the remaining semesters in four consecutive semesters, availed or un-availed, shall cease to pursue further pharmacy education. If a particular course/courses of a semester in not being offered to an otherwise ceasing student during the last semester chance (5th or 4th as the case may be), and the student is unable to register his/her failed course(s), he/she may apply for special chance to the Vice-Chancellor who on recommendation of the Dean concerned may allow the student to register such failed course(s) in the forthcoming semester. A student shall cease to be a student of the University if he/she has left with more semesters to pass than remaining from  the maximum number (15 semester).
3. A student failing to pass 192 credits course work at the end of the fifteen semesters shall cease to be a student of the University.
4. Whenever any student’s CGPA falls between 1.0 and 2.0, he/she shall be put on probation.
5. A student shall be allowed three chances to remain on probation during the entire Pharm-D Programme of studies, after which he/she shall ceased to be the student of the University
6. A student shall have to complete the Pharm-D programme within fifteen (15) regular semesters or seven and half years.

Departmental Grievance Committee

1. There shall be a “departmental Grievance Committee” comprising:
   1. chairman/chairperson
   2. Two senior most faculty members other than the faculty member against whom any complaint is registered (if any). In case the complainant is a female student, then at least one of the Committee members must be a female or be co-opted from other departments/centres/schools of faculty of Biological Sciences.
2. The committee will address the grievances of the students about special examination request, any course instructor or grade or for any other academic or fairness issues.
3. Dean shall be the Appellate authority against the decision of the said committee.
4. A student must approach the chairman/chairperson of the department for a grievance regarding the received grade within three (3) working days of the display of the results on his/her department notice board/webpage/website.
5. The chairperson of the department may forward the grade grievance to the ‘Departmental Grievance Committee’ if deem necessary/appropriate.
6. It will be binding on the committee to hear both sides (student and instructor), and give the final decision within 5 days or before the start of the date of registration for the new semester whichever comes earlier. The Committee may for reasons to be recorded in writing, decide to:
7. Reject the student’s application
8. Ask the concerned teacher to review his/her grading   and satisfy the committee. The committee shall forward its report/recommendations to the Dean of faculty of Biological Sciences.

Summer Sessions

1. Summer Sessions if offered provide opportunities to the students who fail or withdraw from a course and those who wish to improve their GPA.
2. During the semester break, department may offer at least one intensive session of 48 contact hours with courses of their choice.
3. Students who fail or withdraw from a course or courses can register for course(s) offered during Summer Semester. Students who obtain D or C grade i.e. less than 60% in a course or courses can opt to repeat the course or courses to improve their CGPA. However, grade improvement would not be allowed in more than five (5) courses during the entire study programme of study.
4. The students can register for up to two courses during summer semester. A student, who has taken examination in the semester immediately prior to the said summer semester and has failed in certain courses according to departmental result sheet, can register for summer semester on recommendation of the chairman/chairperson countersigned by the Dean of the faculty of Biological Sciences.
5. A student shall have to achieve 80% attendance target, complete tasks for sessional marks, and appear for mid and terminal semester examinations for each course registered for summer semester.
6. Special examination shall not be allowed for summer semester courses.
7. The Dean in consultation with the chairman/chairperson of the department may decide about the number of students to be registered for a particular course, that is being offered for summer semester.
8. All other conditions regarding pre-requisite courses, duration & weightage of sessional and terminal examinations, shall remain the same.

Course File

Maintenance of course file is compulsory for the teachers. It will have a complete record of all academic activities during the semester. The course file shall contain:

1. Description of courses
2. Course coding
3. Weekly teaching schedule
4. Date of semester sessional examination
5. Grading policy identifying each activity, such as homework, quizzes, semester sessional examination, terminal examinations, term paper
6. Record of each homework assignment evaluation
7. Copy of each quiz given
8. Copy of semester sessional examinations
9. Grading sheets of the course detailing statistical data on the grades obtained by the students.
10. Difficulties/problems faced during classroom/course delivery
11. Number of lectures hours

Award of Degree

After successful completion of all the academic requirements (192 credit hours of compulsory courses as approved by the Higher Education Commission/ Pharmacy Council of Pakistan) of the programme with minimum CGPA of 2.5, the University shall award Pharm-D degree to student.