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Pharmacy schools in the UK are facing growing pressure on staffing, placements and funding, the Pharmacy Schools Council’s (PhSC) inaugural annual report has warned.
Published on 6 October 2026, the report says workforce expansion, the opening of new schools of pharmacy and “growing expectations for practice-based education” have placed “considerable pressure” on academic staffing and learning infrastructure.
In some areas, active recruitment of existing academic staff has “further destabilised capacity”, while universities face increasing financial strain, “limiting their ability to invest in the staffing and infrastructure required to support high-quality pharmacy education”.
The report comes as the number of students entering pharmacy education rises, with 5,240 acceptances onto MPharm courses in 2025, up nearly 15% on the previous year.
In the report, the PhSC says the increased expectations introduced under the General Pharmaceutical Council’s 2021 standards for the initial education and training of pharmacists “are not yet matched by consistent capacity or funding”, with significant regional variation.
It has called for a “more sustainable funding model”, highlighting the gap between the pharmacy placement tariff in England compared with those available to other professions.
The PhSC also raised concerns that the education sector was not adequately consulted ahead of the NHS ten-year plan, co-signing a joint letter with other health education organisations.
This led to a ministerial roundtable with the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education, where the placement tariff disparity and the limited inclusion of pharmacy students in the NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF) were highlighted.
Pharmacy students do not have full access to the LSF. From the 2026–2027 academic year, eligible healthcare students with full LSF access can receive advance payments for placement travel and accommodation costs — but pharmacy students are excluded from this new advance payment facility.
In September 2026, the Royal College of Pharmacy called on the government to close this gap, with the government saying it intends to explore extending the advance payments scheme to pharmacy students in future.
The Department of Health and Social Care confirmed to The Pharmaceutical Journal on 8 October 2026 that arrangements for healthcare student support and funding for clinical training placements remain under review and said it welcomed feedback from organisations on pharmacy education, training placements and student support.
Barrie Kellam, chair of the PhSC and head of the pharmacy school at the University of Nottingham, where job cuts have been proposed, said in a news release published alongside the annual report: “This report captures a year of significant change and opportunity for pharmacy education across the United Kingdom.
“Pharmacy schools are training a generation of healthcare professionals who will increasingly impact patient care, support the NHS and advance community health.”
