Royal Pharmaceutical Society
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) will “incorporate pursuit of royal college status into our strategy whenever it is appropriate”, its Assembly has said.
The possibility of converting to a royal college was revisited at the RPS Assembly meeting on 20 July 2022, after a motion was put forward at the Society’s 2022 Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 25 May 2022.
The motion, from former RPS president Steve Churton, asked the Society to “reaffirm this commitment [to seek royal college status], and to further commit to a timeframe in which it expects the Society to become a royal college”.
At the May 2022 AGM, 51% of 152 eligible members attending voted in support of the motion, while 30% voted against and 19% abstained.
In March 2022, the RPS Assembly took the decision not to pursue Royal College status as part of its current five-year strategy.
Following discussions at July 2022 Assembly, it was agreed that at the “appropriate” time, the Society would “ask our membership for their views to gauge the level of support for this move”.
Other motions discussed by Assembly included a proposal to re-join the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), submitted by RPS member Malcolm Brown, following the Society’s withdrawal from membership in December 2021.
At the AGM, a motion that “that RPS reconsiders its decision to leave the FIP and seeks to re-join” received support from 92% of eligible members attending, with 4% voting against and 4% abstaining.
The Assembly supported the idea of re-joining, subject to the outcomes of discussion with FIP at the next council meeting in September 2022. After this meeting, it was agreed that RPS members will be consulted for their views and the outcome of that consultation will be discussed at the next Assembly meeting in November 2022.
