Professor Barrie Kellam has been elected as the new chair of the Pharmacy Schools Council (PhSC), the body announced today (August 8).

The PhSC “represents the collective interests” of 30 pharmacy schools in the UK and offers “expert opinion and advice on matters concerning pharmacy education”, it said.

Kellam heads the University of Nottingham’s school of pharmacy, where he has worked since obtaining his PhD and where he has been a full professor since 2013, it added.

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He has also served as a member of the General Pharmaceutical Council's (GPhC) accreditation and recognition panel, as well as co-founding a drug discovery company, it said.

He takes over as chair from Keele University’s Professor Katie Maddock, who was elected in 2022, according to the PhSC website.

 

“Time of flux”

 

Kellam said that he hopes to “build on the many accomplishments” of Maddock as chair.

He said that the PhSC will work with the NHS to “ensure the smooth implementation” of the GPhC’s education and training standards for newly qualified pharmacists.

“There is a great deal of work that is being done to address the attainment gap in pharmacy education and develop the curriculum to be more inclusive, culturally aware and embedded with equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles,” he added.

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Maddock said that she believes Kellam will do “a fantastic job at bringing schools together in this time of flux and change”.

She added that she is “especially proud” of the PhSC’s accomplishments during her term as chair and praised the “dedication and hard work” of the greater pharmacy sector “during the global pandemic and the nation’s recovery”.

 

Education latest

 

Last month, the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) said that the regulator had “failed” black students in its response to a GPhC pharmacy education consultation. 

At the time, the trade union said that it was “not clear why the GPhC is consulting about a process it is already undertaking with little tangible result”, adding that the registration pass rate gap between the worst and best schools has remained stagnant since 2019.

“It seems that the GPhC is proving incapable of resolving this significant disparity,” it said.

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The same month, the regulator’s council held a confidential session on pharmacy education and training as well as “racism in pharmacy” during its July council meeting.

And in February, a report from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) criticised the lack of progress on closing the gap between the proportion of black and white pharmacy trainees who pass the summer registration assessment.