A survey of pharmacy students’ opinions at the Open University in Estonia

Abstract

In the year 2004, in addition to the 37 full-time students who graduated from the University of Tartu,the first 64 are already working as pharmacist’s assistants have received their pharmacy education inthe Open University (distance learning). Their pharmaceutical education comes from the professionalschool. After 3.5 years of studying at the university, an anonymous survey was carried out to find outthe students’ opinions about the program they graduated from.The students, both in professional school and in university, have received the impulse to study pharmacyfrom their parents, friends or colleagues. The main motivations for entering the university were theopportunity of higher salary, and better opportunities of promotion. The students are predominatelysatisfied with the level of the organisation of the studies, teaching and the study aids. Almost half ofthe students consider it right to change the proportions of the modules in the curriculum – they wishto reduce the importance of the subjects based on chemistry.The Open University is a good opportunity to prepare pharmacists with university education on the basisof the education of the pharmacist’s assistant and enables life-long learning without age limits. Thesurvey, as feedback, is the basis of creating a system for evaluating and ensuring the quality of thestudies. This enables the development of the curricula of pharmacy.