The process of separating Pharmacy education from All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is in the final stage. Now it will be handled only by Pharmacy Council of India (PCI). According to sources, the Government has in-principle agreed to bring Pharmacy exclusively under the PCI’s ambit. Whenever the decision is implemented, it will benefit Pharmacy education at large.

Pharmacy education was brought under the ambit of AICTE long ago. Though the curriculum, regulations, approval to colleges, etc. were being looked after by PCI, the team of AICTE too visited colleges. Colleges face visits from AICTE and PCI too. In case PCI failed to find lacunae, AICTE team identified deficiencies, submitting negative report or vice versa due to which confusion always reigned supreme. Pharmacy education has technical as well as science aspect. Pharmacy education under science is under PCI, but being technical aspect, it remained under AICTE too. According to some experts of Pharmacy education, this branch should stay with PCI only. PCI, too, has been trying since long to get it separated.

Some teachers, on condition of anonymity, expressed their worries. If Pharmacy gets separated from AICTE, what would happen to PCI funding. At present, a Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT) qualifier gets a scholarship if the institute is AICTE-approved. If pharmacy comes out of AICTE, how would the scholarship be given as the institute will not have AICTE approval. In 2020, the Apex Court clearly said that PCI would be the supreme body for affiliation for Pharmacy colleges, but the issue of GPAT scholarship was not addressed.