Author of this article, Pang Jia Chern (in the photo above), is currently pursuing his Masters degree at IMU.
In general, one may think that when you pursue a pharmacy degree, you can only become a community or a hospital pharmacist. But the IMU BPharm (Hons) programme also prepares a student and provides all the necessary opportunities to venture into research. The BPharm (Hons) at IMU is a four-year programme and students also encounter modules which helps him or her to gain knowledge and skills to venture into research after the undergraduate pharmacy degree. The curriculum has modules like Information Acquisition and Analysis, Current Trends and Critical Appraisal, Research Methodology, Research Project I and Research Project II which has enabled me to pursue a masters’ degree in research. In my final year of Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) programme, the curriculum has an entire semester focussing on research. The research can be executed in IMU or can also be executed in an overseas research laboratory at a collaborating university depending on the availability of the project. The students also had the opportunity to avail themselves to the student mobility fund to support their travel. Currently, the programme has a guaranteed funding for all students which can be used either for overseas research or for the exploring the overseas elective opportunities. This funding would be greatly helpful to meet the travel and accommodation related to these opportunities in the curriculum.
I had an opportunity to conduct lab-based research and without a doubt, it was a memorable and fruitful experience. I cherished every moment that I spent with my teammates conducting our research together and I appreciate all the guidance provided by my supervisors and treasured every effort put in towards the completion of my research project. Throughout Semester 7, I learned the importance of scientific research in discovering novel drugs with ideal safety and efficacy profiles. This had motivated me in moving towards research and I eventually decided to join the MSc in Medical and Health Sciences.
I am fortunate to have undergone the IMU BPharm (Hons) programme as I learned how to prepare a proposal, differentiate reliable and unreliable reference sources, study and summarise literature reviews, conduct scientific research with appropriate techniques, analyse results with suitable methods and present data to the public which cumulatively have laid a strong foundation for me to join a postgraduate programme. These knowledge and skills acquired in my undergraduate programme had allowed me to better adapt to the study environment and culture of a postgraduate programme. In short, I am grateful that I studied the Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) in IMU and glad that I am currently studying the MSc in Medical and Health Sciences at IMU.”
Written by Pang Jia Chern
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