Urgently need help: certification denied after passing FPGEE and TOEFL ibt

[Portugal]

Please help.

A few days ago I received a letter from the FPGEC that informed me that I was ineligible for certification; only a week prior to that I had received a letter stating that I had passed. Reason that was stated was that the upper-secondary school courses that I had taken were equivalent to US high-school level courses, and not University level as required.

I completed the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma (2 years) in Portugal and went on to receive a Masters in Pharmacy (4 years) at a university in the United Kingdom.

According to the ECE, admission to the university I went to required 1-year of pre-pharmacy - how did I meet those requirements?

I am at a loss why the A-levels are viewed as equivalent to 1-year of pre-pharmacy where as the IB is not.

My question is has anyone else gone through the same situation, and if so could you please advise.

Does that mean that the IB level diploma count for nothing?

[aquaforce]

what was in your ECE report??

[Portugal]

The ECE report stated that I had an US equivalent of a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree and the comments section stated that admission to the University program usually requires completion of the United States equivalent of one year of university-level pre-pharmacy study.

[aquaforce]

That is really strange!!! The other thing is that when did u graduate? Because if you did graduate after 2002 then you are required to finish a 5-years long degree, but if you graduated prior to that date, your MPharm should be sufficient to fullfill the education requiremt.

[lightgreen]

My guess is only BS pharm degree matters to NABP, they won't care about master degree or even PhD degree. Your BS pharm degree was from a two-year program and it is not equivalent to the four-year BS pharm degree here in USA. You may communicate with NABP and find out what the real reason is. Maybe you can argue with them. Good luck!

[ncstate]

Master's in Pharmacy in the UK is not a profession degree, it does not lead to pharmacist licensure in the UK, it is more of an academic degree.

[aquaforce]

MPharm ( master of pharmacy) is the only degree in uk that leads you to become a reqistered pharmacist, and its an undergraduate degree NOT a post graduate degree. Started in 97 (class of 2001) in place of the old Bsc in pharmacy which was a 3 years degree.

About portugal's situation, what I think happened was that he probably graduated after 2002, and because of that he only has a 4-year degree with no A-levels, because A-levels are considered one year pre-pharmacy, and because of that he been denied. But what amazes me why the NABP did not tell you that when first applied to the FPGEE, why have they wasted your time, money and effort for nothing?!!!!! If I were you I will seek a legal action against them. Anyway, best of luck, and I hope they give you the FPGEC

[Aussiepharmer]

Hi, then how come IB is not recognized as university credits like A-levels?
I know that many universities in US accept IB as college credits. I find it's discriminatory to only accept A-levels.

This is my situation(slightly similar to Portugal's):

I took 1.5 years of study at a US university prior to admission to a pharmacy school in Australia. The norm in Australia is that students go straight into the 4 year BPharm program from high school, however, for my specific case(since I graduated from a high school in US and so could not take A-levels,IB, or the pharmacy school's high school equivalent admission requirements), the pharmacy school required me to take at least one year of university studies before admission to my current pharmacy school. So this means Australian pharmacy schools like mine usually requires high school work or IB or etc. for admission for DOMESTIC students. Do you think ECE will consider my case? Do they accept you if you did total of 5 years of uni(as long as no overlap in subjects)including prerequisites regardless of the fact that domestic students usually take 4 years as the norm in a certain country?
For example, what if someone has A-level records with an Australian 4 yr degree vs. A-levels with a UK 4 yr degree? or someone who has 1 yr university + Australian degree vs. 1 yr university + UK degree?

[Portugal]

Thank you for all of those who have replied.

My main aim was to find out if anyone else had done the IB and then a 4 year degree in the Uk. In which case what did their ECE report state and what was the NABP's action!

Moreover the only option I believe I have now is to study again, and I going to try and meet up with an international admissions officer at a Pharmacy College and see what my options are.

Would getting my degree credits evaluated and accepted by the college reduce the time period I have to study significantly? Would the NABP accept that degree?

I have no idea what actions other students which are found to have a 4 year degree according to the ECE and NABP take?!

[ninah]

When did you graduate?