Abstract:

In Peru there are currently 19 Faculties and Schools of Pharmacy. Among all of them there are a little number that offer postgraduate studies, so that after obtaining the degree in pharmacy there is hardly the possibility of specialization in fields such as healthcare pharmacy and industrial pharmacy, major professional outings of the Peruvian pharmacist, nor in research, being very low the number of pharmacists who have reached both the degree of magister and the degree of doctor.

The objective of this work was to design a Master's degree in Pharmaceutical Technology through cooperation between the University Institute of Industrial Pharmacy of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and the School of Pharmacy and Biochemistry of the Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), and proceed to its implementation in the latter.

The curricula of the degree in pharmacy at the UPCH were reviewed and the basic skills required of the pharmaceutical professional by the pharmaceutical industry were identified. With this information, the degree programme was developed, the universities responsible for each subject were assigned, and training strategies and evaluation criteria were defined.

Master's Degree in Pharmaceutical Technology was structured in four semesters, with a total of 64 credits (17h/credit) and modular teaching of each subject. The two first semesters consist of nine subjects, three of them taught by UCM teachers, other three by UPCH teachers and the last three by a blend of both. The teaching by UCM is face-to-face and virtual except in two of them which is by video conference with virtual assistance. Passing the subjects in the first two semesters allows to obtain the Diploma in Quality Assurance of Finished Product. In the third and fourth semesters there are four subjects with research focus, two of them by UCM teachers and the other two by UPCH ones. These two semesters include also a pharmaceutical research work supervised by teachers of both universities. Passing the subjects of the four semesters and the presentation of the research work (thesis) leads to the Master's Degree in Pharmaceutical Technology.

A specific collaboration agreement was elaborated for the implementation of this Master's Degree, as an annex to the framework agreement signed by the two universities. This specific agreement includes, in addition to the colaboration of UCM teachers in the Master's Degree, exchange of postgraduate students, joint research projects and research information exchange in subjects related with Pharmaceutical Technology.

On 27th of July of 2016, UPCH was granted with the Institutional License to offer university studies in Peru (accreditation process which all peruvian universities are being subjected), including among the authorized degrees, Master's Degree in Pharmaceutical Technology. In November 2018, the second edition was completed. A total of 17 students have taken all the subjects, but to date only one has submitted his thesis to obtain the master's degree.

Keywords:

Master´s degree, Pharmaceutical Technology, university cooperation, virtual learning.