School of Pharmacy welcomes MSc students back on campus

8 Dec 2021

The two-day MSc Pharmaceutical Technology and Quality Systems workshop offered in a blended, hybrid format.

The School of Pharmacy was delighted to welcome students of the MSc in Pharmaceutical Technology and Quality Systems (PTQS) back to on campus workshops in the last week. With ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the workshops were facilitated both face-to-face in the School of Pharmacy and simulcast to students who were unable to travel or restricting their movements. Speaking after the workshops, programme director, Dr Joey O’Shea said “It was fantastic to have students back in hands-on workshops and get to meet some of the current cohort for the first time. It had been almost 20 months since our last face-to-face workshop, so we were excited to see our students again and were determined to offer a safe teaching environment on campus.” Over the two-day workshop, students completed a range of case-studies related to pharmaceutical quality management, participated in a hands-on demonstration of oral solid dose manufacture and release testing in the School of Pharmacy’s pilot-scale processing suite and were treated to expert insight from external speakers. Lisa Flynn (Associate Director, PM Group) provided students with an overview of a typical commissioning, qualification and validation (CQV) project and new technologies in CQV, while Lorraine Brophy (Site Quality Head) and Una Moynihan (QP and MSc PTQS past graduate) from Janssen Sciences Ireland described the advanced manufacturing technology on site and went on to discuss the emerging role of the QP in the Digital Environment.

^{Lorraine Brophy and Una Moynihan (Janssen Sciences Ireland) address the MSc PTQS Workshop}

Dr O’Shea went on to say “The programme team have worked hard over the years to develop and deliver a blended learning programme and are well versed in online delivery and technology enhanced learning, so while adapting to completely online delivery during COVID restrictions was certainly a challenge, we felt it was manageable”. Reflecting on the workshop, he said “We are now at the stage where we are keen to get back to our blended approach as much as possible. We want to get students back on campus for workshops, allow them to get the UCC experience, develop their networks and support them in their studies – but we need to do that safely and remain flexible, adapting to students’ personal and professional circumstances.” The School of Pharmacy has safely hosted students on-site for essential practical and small group teaching throughout the pandemic restrictions, with facilities adapted and enhanced to allow face-to-face delivery. “We know we can host students safely on-site” said Dr O’Shea, “with the more widespread use of TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning), we are in a position where we can continue to develop these hybrid workshops, and we see this as a key strategy for the MSc PTQS into the future.”

The MSc PTQS is a two-year distance learning course is aimed at graduates who currently work within the pharmaceutical industry who wish to fulfill the EU educational requirements for Qualified Person (QP) status. Graduates who complete this course and have the relevant work experience are eligible to apply to the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) to register as a QP. The course is not limited to aspiring QPs. It is designed to broaden professional development and provide up-to-date assessments of the latest trends in the areas of pharmaceutical/ biopharmaceutical development, manufacturing and quality. The individual modules provide knowledge and experience of benefit to all technical, quality, regulatory and managerial staff in the pharmaceutical industry. For queries regarding this course please contact Dr Joey O’Shea (Programme Director; joseph.oshea@ucc.ie) or Linda McGuire (Programme Co-ordinator; l.mcguire@ucc.ie).