Student assessment of postgraduate clinical pharmacy programmes in the United Kingdom (2): results of the course experience questionnaire

Abstract

Abstract Objective The principal objective of this paper was to use the course experience questionnaire (CEQ30) instrument to compare and evaluate aspects of provision of postgraduate clinical pharmacy programmes available through institutions of higher education in the United Kingdom. Method A postal survey, using the CEQ, of graduates from clinical pharmacy postgraduate programmes. Cases were subject to factor analysis, comparative statistics and regression analysis to describe differences between aspects of programme provision. Setting Graduates from 10 different postgraduate clinical pharmacy programmes in the UK since 1990 were surveyed. A total of 511 questionnaires were distributed and 364 were returned (72 per cent). Key findings Significant differences between institutions were identified in key factors of student-evaluated aspects of higher education. Factors were generally rated low by respondents. Some programmes appear more likely to encourage surface approaches to learning rather than deep learning. Analysis of factor scores enabled a ranking table to be drawn up for the postgraduate programmes included. Conclusions Evaluation of individual programmes shows differences in rating of aspects of provision. There is scope for postgraduate clinical pharmacy programmes to improve. The study findings raise the question of whether these differences in the learning experience may affect the quality of clinical pharmacy graduate.