Accreditation of pharmacy degree programs

We accredit pharmacy education programs in Australia to:

assure their quality against clear, agreed program standards
provide advice to the Pharmacy Board of Australia (PharmBA) about programs that lead to registration as a pharmacist

Time frame:

Initial accreditation: may take up to 30 months for proposed new programs
Re-accreditation: process starts 12 months before accreditation expires

Costs:

See fees for accreditation

On this page:

About Australian program accreditation
Applying for accreditation
Remaining accredited
Proposing changes to your accredited program
Contact information

About Australian program accreditation

We accredit pharmacy degree programs in Australia against a set of clear, agreed accreditation standards.

See the current list of accredited pharmacy degree programs.

Accreditation definitions

Accredited

An 'accredited' pharmacy degree program fully meets all 38 criteria in the accreditation standards.

Accredited with conditions

A pharmacy degree program that is 'accredited with conditions' substantially meets these standards, and is expected to fully meet them in a reasonable time frame.

When a program is 'accredited with conditions', the provider must report to us as required. Education providers can still deliver these programs, and students can graduate from them with the listed qualification.

Status of graduates

Graduates of accredited Australian programs can apply for provisional registration with the Pharmacy Board of Australia. See their webite for details on the intern year.

Applying for accreditation of a new program

We've provided an overview of the application process here. You can also review the Accreditation Guide.

Applying to accredit a proposed new pharmacy program can take up to 30 months. If you have any questions about the process or timelines, please email us.

1. Consult with our accreditation team

When you are planning a new pharmacy program, you should refer to our:

To let us know you'd like to apply for accreditation, please email us.

We recommend telling us you intend to launch a new program early in the planning phase. This will help you to avoid any delays in delivering your proposed new program. Our Accreditation Committee (the Committee) cannot grant program accreditation retrospectively.

We'll provide and ask you to fill out our 'Notification of Intent to apply for accreditation of a new pharmacy program' form.

We'll review your submission, and treat any information you provide as confidential. We'll then send you the appropriate documents and submission details for you to submit your accreditation application.

2. Apply for accreditation

To apply for accreditation, submit your 'Accreditation Application' form that we send to you.

Before we provide it to our external assessors, we'll review your submission. If your application is not complete, we may return it to you and ask you to amend and re-submit it.

We treat all information you provide to us as confidential.

Accreditation Assessment Team

We'll engage an Accreditation Assessment Team of 2 suitably qualified and experienced assessors. They will assess your written submission, undertake an online interview with you and prepare a report of their findings.

During this stage, we may ask you to submit additional information requested by the team to assist them in preparing their report.

For details on the assessors skills and expertise, see the Accreditation Guide.

3. Wait to hear from us

Our Accreditation Committee (the Committee) will review the Accreditation Assessment Team Report. The Committee may ask for details on any aspect of the report before making an accreditation decision.

The Committee will decide to either:

accredit your program for up to 6 years (or less, if they see fit)
accredit your program with conditions for up to 6 years (or less, if they see fit), or
not accredit your program

The Committee may require you to address matters of concerns and/or submit future reporting and set a time for this.

We'll then let you know the results of their decision. If your program is accredited, we'll also update our website to show your program's accreditation status.

Remaining accredited

If your program is granted accreditation

There a number of regular quality assurance and monitoring activities undertaken to maintain the ongoing accreditation of your program(s). These are outlined in our Accreditation Quality Assurance and Monitoring Policy and include the following activities.

Program monitoring and reporting

Annual reporting

We recognise that many factors can affect whether a program continues to meet the accreditation standards. As part of maintaining accreditation of your program(s), you'll need to submit an annual report. This report will contain:

student numbers
staff demographics
any quality assurance activities you've completed.

We will email you an annual report template to be used for all of your accredited programs. If you need a template re-sent to you, please email us.

The Committee will review your report. In some cases, it may need to impose further reporting requirements on your accreditation.

Other reporting

Some programs may be required to report against conditions and monitoring requirements that the Committee has applied. We will communicate requirements and due dates for your program reporting directly to you.

Site visit

In the early years of the delivery of your new program, we will conduct a site visit. We will contact you directly to make the necessary arrangements.

See the Accreditation Guide for details about the structure of the visit.

Re-accreditation process

Time frame	Action
Up to 18 months before accreditation expires	We notify you of your upcoming reaccreditation requirements. We negotiate mutually suitable dates for the submission of your accreditation application and the site visit. We appoint an Accreditation Assessment Team to undertake the accreditation review.
6 weeks before the site visit	You submit your re-accreditation application and additional documentation.
0-6 weeks before the site visit	The assessment team and APC representative will review your application and additional documentation.
At least 3 months before accreditation expires	The assessment team undertakes the site visit.
Before accreditation expires	The assessment team finalises their report. The Committee makes their accreditation decision. We notify you of your accreditation outcome.

Your program accreditation status after re-accreditation may be 'accredited' or 'accredited with conditions'. However, in some situations we may need to consider revoking accreditation.

For details of these situations, see the Accreditation Guide.

Proposing changes to your accredited program

You must tell us as soon as you decide to change anything about your accredited program. Use the Notification of Change to a Pharmacy Program form.

Material (major) changes in a program may affect its ability to meet the accreditation standards. For examples of types of material changes, see Notification of Change to a Pharmacy Program.

If you are unsure if you should notify us about a change, please email us.

Based on this information, the Committee will assess:

the likely impact of the change
whether the change requires re-assessing your program's accreditation status
whether any re-assessment will require a site visit
the documentation needed to support re-assessment.

If we determine that your program change is material, you'll need to pay a Material Change fee.

Contact information

Email us if you:

have questions about any of the topics above
would like to ask about anything else related to accreditation
would like to make a complaint about an accredited program