The Faculty of Pharmacy was established in 1986 in Beirut, Lebanon. The undergraduate program at the Faculty started with six academic departments and progressed to include four academic departments, as follows:
• Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Pharmacy Practice
• Pharmaceutical Technology
The Faculty has observed considerable growth in the number of its students that increased from 115 in 1991 to 560 in the academic year 2022-2023.
The Faculty of Pharmacy is committed to provide exceptional educational opportunities to the students, maintains its role in conducting impactful research that is globally beneficial. The Faculty supports community engagement through building sustainable partnerships with national and international collaborators. The Faculty demonstrates a strong commitment to provide the highest level of teaching and learning and to attract qualified staff and enthusiastic students
The Faculty adopts a well-designed competency based curriculum supported by a student-centered educational model that foster students’ lifelong learning
In 2002, the Faculty updated the academic programs and adopted the rules and regulations of the Credit Hour System. It also expanded its curriculum to incorporate graduate programs including Master and PhD Degrees, in addition to 2-year duration PharmD Program. In 2009-2010, the “Experiential Training” program, for pharmacy students, became an integral part of the curriculum aiming to allow students acquire the required skills and competencies, under effective supervision from the faculty.
In the same academic year and in response to a societal need, a 1-year duration PharmD program was established. Accordingly and at the same time, pharmacotherapeutics I-VI were added gradually, to enable the Faculty graduates to enroll in the PharmD program without conditions.
In the year 2011-2012, pharmacotherapeutics I-VI became core courses, and two faculty elective courses, “Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management” and ”Communication Skills for Health Professionals”, were added to the curriculum. Moreover, the Faculty established a “Pharmaceutical Continuing Education Program” which includes short courses, seminars, and presentations in the various pharmaceutical fields that offer graduates and the community a venue for maintaining up-to-date knowledge.
In May 2012, the Canadian Council for Accreditation of Pharmacy Programs (CCAPP) conducted a pre-accreditation site visit to the Faculty for evaluation of the undergraduate educational program at BAU. In the same year and based on the CCAPP final report, the Faculty started to design a new curriculum to adjust the pharmaceutical sciences and introduce more clinical courses.
The Faculty also established a Pharmacy Practice Department (PPD) to offer courses specifically designed to achieve the Canadian professional competencies for pharmacists at entry-to-practice. The courses offered, at early levels, like Professional Communication Skills, Pharmacy Practice Management, Pharmacy Practice I, and Pharmaceutical Calculations serve as a solid foundation for the subsequent courses offered at higher levels.
The pharmacy practice courses are interspersed in the Faculty curriculum in concordance with other relevant courses including Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Therapeutics, and Pharmaceutics, to achieve optimal learning outcomes. Moreover, a series of Integrated Case-Based Learning (ICBL) courses in addition to an Inter-Professional Education IPE course were included to promote pharmaceutical care practice as well as inter-professional collaborative patient-centered practice.
In October 2014, CCAPP has conducted its second site visit to the faculty for the accreditation of the pharmacy program. In the same academic year and based on the site-visit report, the Faculty started to improve the curricular contents and design and further increase the percentage of clinical part of the curriculum. A great effort was made to vertically and horizontally integrate the courses to facilitate the curricular delivery. Moreover, the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) was applied for the first time for the 5th level students as a tool to measure the expected acquired competencies. In academic year 2022-2023, OSCE has approved to become a graduation requirement. The Faculty of pharmacy was awarded a full international accreditation status from Canadian Council for Accreditation of Pharmacy Programs CCAPP in June 2017 for a 5 year-term. This status was extended for more one year until December 2023.
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