Background
Pharmacy workforce supply and demand issues are now very firmly on the profession’s radar. Still to be debated, however, is the issue of attrition and the extent to which it occurs from the point at which students enter a pharmacy degree programme to joining the pharmaceutical register. In an attempt to further the debate on the subject this paper examines the data that are available; limitations associated with the data are highlighted, and recommendations for future work are made.

Results
Data (1996 to 2002) provided by the statistical enquiry service on the UCAS website show that the number of students applying to study pharmacy over recent years has fluctuated (table 1). The total number of students accepted onto pharmacy courses has increased steadily, by 73% in the same period. However, in 2002 UCAS combined figures for Pharmacology, Pharmacy, and Toxicology, distorting the real increase in pharmacy. Data from the RPSGB are likely to give a far more accurate picture of the real growth in student numbers to pharmacy because they represent places taken up by new students – 21% increase between 1996 and 2002.

Table 1 also shows the number of students who were eventually awarded a degree and the number of pre-registration pharmacists who passed the exam. While 1302 degrees were awarded in 2001, 1753 started the course 4 years earlier. This represents an attrition rate of 26%, during a time when the course was extended. Attrition was 11%, 6% and 9% for the 1995, 1996 and 1998 student cohorts respectively. How many of these students go on to pass their pre-registration exam is more difficult to answer, since the figures for pre-registration exam passes include those who passed through the adjudication route, as well as re-sits by students from different cohorts.

Discussion
National estimates indicate that 17% of UK-domiciled students who started a full-time degree course in 1997/8 will obtain no qualification, so pharmacy appears to compare favourably with national figures. While these data provide a general indication of how pharmacy students fare over the duration of their training, analysis at an institution level would shed light on variation across locations.

Appreciation of attrition rates is important because it allows workforce planners and policy makers to estimate the number of new pharmacists that can be expected to join the register each year. However, this can only be achieved with accuracy if data are clearly defined. For example, allowance for re-sits and repeated years of study should probably be made; and it may help to distinguish newly qualified GB pharmacists from those joining through the adjudication route.

Research has shown that those who do not complete a course of study experience labour market disadvantage, and have a sense of personal failure at withdrawing from HE. This could ultimately reduce the effectiveness of the HE system in general, and in the longer term deter applicants to Schools of Pharmacy. In view of this it may also be useful to monitor attrition rates over time. 

*Data source: UCAS. (includes accepts to Belfast) + data source: RPSGB (includes Belfast students, and pre-reg passes through the adjudication route)