A survey of the content of BSc courses in pharmacology in UK universities--is it time for a core curriculum?

The 18 UK universities offering three--of four--year BSc pharmacology courses were surveyed by questionnaire to determine course content, laboratory-practical content and project or dissertation requirements. In this article David Dewhurst and Clive Page provide an overview of the study, which highlighted the fact that there is no core curriculum. There was considerable variation in course content [only a limited number of common topics were taught in depth (> 15 h timetabled time)] and the time spent doing 'wet' laboratory practicals varied considerably (range 0-145 h). A research project in the final year was the norm (although the time allocation varied considerably), but some universities used a library-based dissertation as an alternative.