Higher Education Institutions

In terms of Section 3 of the Pharmacy Act, 53 of 1974, the South African Pharmacy Council (hereafter referred to as Council) is responsible for establishing, developing, maintaining and controlling universally acceptable standards in pharmaceutical education and training. Council implements the above responsibilities by developing scopes of practice and qualifications, accrediting providers and courses, ensuring quality in the delivery of the programmes, and ensuring consistency and quality across programmes. Council’s main responsibility is to protect, promote and maintain the health, safety and well-being of members of the public. The implementation of this responsibility is aligned with the relevant regulations.

Council developed the Accreditation/Monitoring visit instrument for HEIs. The standards set out in this document provide benchmarks to guide the development, implementation and quality assurance of programmes leading to higher education and training (HET) qualifications in pharmacy.

Monitoring visits for HEI are conducted every four (4) years. The report for the visits outlines shortcomings and timelines for response or mitigating the shortcomings. Depending on the shortcomings identified, the outcome of the visit might be:

• Full accreditation
• Not accredited
• Preliminary accreditation

Council uses a panel of experts to conduct these inspections. The panel members are trained on the accreditation/monitoring visit instrument and report writing, prior to conducting visits. Panel members are to declare any conflict of interest and must sign a non-disclosure agreement.