Motivation and career prospects of pharmacy students at Nelson Mandela metropolitan university : a preliminary study

Abstract EN

The primary aim of the study was to determine the motivation for studying pharmacy, as well as the career prospects, of undergraduate pharmacy students at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), South Africa.

A questionnaire was distributed during July 2005 to 214 undergraduate pharmacy students at NMMU.

Most of the respondents (65.9%) were female, and 29.4% were not South African citizens.

Only 52.3% of respondents indicated that pharmacy was their first choice when making a career decision.

Regarding their future, 80.1% of South African students indicated that they plan to practice pharmacy in South Africa.

Most students plan to work in hospital pharmacy (31.7%), followed by retail pharmacy (23.4%) and manufacturing pharmacy (21.6%).

Three-quarters of respondents (75.9%) indicated that they were interested in postgraduate studies after completing their BPharm degree, with only 39.2% of these students considering postgraduate studies at NMMU.

Three-quarters of South African respondents plan to work overseas after completion of their studies (most respondents plan to work overseas for a period of one to five years).

More than half of the South African respondents (54.7%) were considering emigrating after completion of their studies.

These results have important implications for the future of the pharmacy profession in South Africa.