School of Pharmacy

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Summary Description

As the oldest school of pharmacy in the West, the UCSF School of Pharmacy has a long history of accomplishment in science, patient care, and in training tomorrow’s PhD researchers and PharmD clinicians.

Our faculty is advancing innovative therapeutics-related science, guiding the most creative PhD scientists-in-the-making, and preparing Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students to think critically. We are steering the direction of research and health care delivery outside academia, working as pharmacists on health teams in groundbreaking ways, caring for patients through new approaches, and empowering patients with the information they need to make the best personal choices about medications.

The dean’s office and the school’s three departments work toward these ends in different but complementary ways:

  1. The Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry explores fundamental biological mechanisms and molecules of therapeutic relevance for better health, empowered by novel tech­no­lo­gies at the interface of chemistry, physics, and computational sciences.
  2. The Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences explores the complex processes of biology and applies these findings and bioengineering advances to the development and rational use of precise therapeutics to improve health.
  3. The Department of Clinical Pharmacy advances the precise, safe, and effective use of therapeutics to improve health.
  4. The Dean’s Office ensures the school has the strategic agenda, operational framework, and resources required to succeed.

Faculty in all three departments teach and mentor graduate students, including those in the school's PharmD degree program and the five PhD degree programs administered by the school.

Policies

Withdrawals/Leave of Absence/Readmission Policies

This purpose of this policy is to define the processes pertaining to UCSF pharmacy students who leave the school through withdrawal, leave of absence, dismissal, or discontinuation and who subsequently seek readmission to the PharmD program.

See the full policy on withdrawals, leave of absence, and readmission

Academic Standing/Probation/Dismissal

The purpose of this policy is to outline the criteria that constitutes good academic standing, the criteria under which a student may be placed on academic probation and the criteria that leads to a review of a student’s academic record for consideration of dismissal. The Committee on Academic Standards and the Sub-Committee on Student Progress oversees implementation of this policy.

See the full policy on academic standing, probation, and dismissal.

Grading

The purpose of this policy is to outline student assessment evaluation of performance and subsequent grading in the PharmD curriculum. This policy applies to all faculty and staff contributing to the PharmD curriculum and all students enrolled in the UCSF PharmD program.

See the full policy on grading.

Conduct

As future health care professionals and health science researchers, UCSF students are held to high standards of behavior, particularly in matters of ethics, judgment, and professionalism. As such, student conduct is often directly relevant to a student’s academic performance. Matters relating to student conduct are therefore initiated by the deans of the schools and Graduate Division (or their designees). The dean shall be made aware of alleged misconduct and determine whether to utilize either

  1. procedures related to academic professionalism standards or
  2. student conduct procedures. Both avenues allow for informal or formal resolution of the issue(s).

Any breach of professionalism as defined in the standards below will be addressed via the process outlined therein.

Violations of policies outlined in Policies Applying to Campus Activities, Organizations and Students (PACAOS) 102.00 may result in the initiation of student conduct procedures.

If it is unclear which procedure is relevant to a particular situation, please consult with the associate dean. Initiation of one procedure does not preclude the use of the other resolution or investigation options.

See the full policy on conduct