The opening of a second school of pharmacy in Baltimore ? at The College of Notre Dame, Maryland ? came as welcome news to the competition.
Maryland?s existing school, the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, cannot graduate enough students to keep pace with job demand, state officials said.
“There is a constant need as the population grows for more pharmacists, as well as while the population continues to age,” said David Sumler, assistant secretary for academic affairs for the Maryland Higher Education Commission, which approved Notre Dame?s school.
The University of Maryland graduates about 120 students a year, with plans to expand to the Universities at Shady Grove to offer an additional 40 diplomas, Sumler said. At present, Maryland pharmacies hire about 200 or more per year.
“The college has a strong liberal arts foundation, but we also pay careful attention to what?s going on in the marketplace,” said Notre Dame President Mary Pat Seurkamp. “Pharmacy is an area where there is a serious shortage that we will be facing not only in the state but in the country.”
College of Notre Dame anticipates launching the school of pharmacy in the fall of 2008, enrolling 65 students each year. This is the historic women?s school?s first professional degreeoffering, and the school will admit male and female students.
However, in keeping with Notre Dame?s history, the school will emphasize women?s health care as well as humane values and clear, ethical thinking, according to a course description put out by the college.
Nationally, there are seven applicants for every available chair in a school of pharmacy, and 65 percent of pharmacy students are female, according to research compiled by Notre Dame.
Maryland?s first and only pharmacy school, at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, supported Notre Dame?s application.
“I welcome the College of Notre Dame into the enterprise of pharmacy education,” said school Dean David Knapp, Ph.D., in a statement. “Pharmaceutical education must expand to meet society?s needs and a constellation of diverse schools and colleges of pharmacy can only help.”
UMB receives about 1,400 applications for 120 seats every year, and most receive at least three job offers before they graduate.
Staff reporter Megan McIlroy contributed to this report.
