A marketing plan for recruiting students into pharmacy school-based graduate programs. A report

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Winter 2000 by Holdford, David A, Stratton, Timothy P

A Marketing Plan for Recruiting Students into Pharmacy SchoolBased Graduate Programs. A Report1,2

INTRODUCTION

In 1999, the Recruitment Issues Subcommittee of AACP's Social and Administrative Sciences (SAS) Graduate Programs Standards Committee was given a task to develop a marketing plan to recruit students into pharmacy school-based graduate programs in the social and administrative sciences (e.g., healthcare ethics, health services research, management, marketing, pharmacoeconomics, psychology and sociology). The subcommittee, composed of SAS faculty and students enrolled in pharmacy school-based SAS graduate programs, proceeded to develop a plan that incorporates many but not necessarily all of the elements of a formal marketing plan(l). The impetus behind the development of this marketing plan was to identify immediate and explicit steps for increasing the number of students applying to and graduating from pharmacy school-based graduate programs in the social and administrative sciences.

The competitive nature of the market for pharmacy graduates in North America is making it increasingly difficult to attract qualified candidates for graduate education. In part, this difficulty is due to the wide range of alternatives available to pharmacy graduates who would be potential graduate school candidates. Pharmacy graduates are in great demand for entry-level pharmacist positions at very competitive starting salaries. Alternatively, students who wish to continue their education after pharmacy school can choose from residencies, fellowships, or other graduate programs leading to master or doctoral degrees in the basic and pharmaceutical sciences (MS/PhD), Business Administration (MBA/DBA), Health Administration (MHA) or Public Health (MPH/DPH), as well as other programs. Pharmacy schools wishing to attract qualified graduate students may benefit from systematic marketing efforts both at the school and Association levels.

This paper outlines a marketing plan for recruiting students into pharmacy school-based graduate programs, hereafter referred to as SAS graduate programs. Although recruitment of graduate students into Social and Administrative Sciences programs is emphasized, many of the considerations discussed are applicable to the recruiting efforts by AACP's other Academic Sections as well. The remaining sections of this report: (i) address challenges and opportunities when recruiting graduate students; (ii) discuss the need to clearly define the "product" that graduate programs are trying to sell to potential students; (iii) profile the types of students appropriate for graduate education; (iv) identify which groups of students should be pursued by pharmacy school graduate programs; (v) compare SAS graduate programs to other opportunities for graduate study; (vi) propose promotional strategies for SAS graduate programs; and (vii) suggest assessment approaches for measuring the performance of the marketing strategies adopted.

RECRUITING CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Challenges in Recruiting Pharmacy Graduates

Many barriers exist to attracting pharmacy students into graduate programs. One challenge is competing with employers for pharmacy school graduates. Another is differentiating pharmacy graduate education from other postgraduate educational opportunities. These challenges are compounded by potential candidates' lack of understanding about the process of graduate education or career opportunities resulting from a graduate degree. These challenges are detailed in this section.

The shortage of pharmacists in the current employment market has resulted in very high salaries for new graduates. Immediately upon licensure, new pharmacists in some geographic locations can command salaries on par with those earned by full professors at many of the nation's schools and colleges of pharmacy(2). The allure of high salaries is enhanced by the large student loan debt loads accumulated by many pharmacy graduates by the time of graduation. Asking students to incur an additional 2-5 years of debt by attending graduate school can be a hard path to sell. Exacerbating this situation is the fact that a newly-minted, PhD-trained SAS faculty member with a full-time, calendar-year appointment can expect to start out earning only 66-75 percent of the starting salaries offered entry-level pharmacists by some national chain pharmacies(2). These circumstances translate into significant opportunity costs for pharmacists to continue their education in graduate programs.

In addition, financial issues play a role when students consider competing postgraduate educational opportunities. Residencies and fellowships are two alternatives to graduate school which offer higher stipends than most graduate programs. Residency and fellowship stipends typically range from $20,000 to $35,000 per year while stipends offered to graduate students generally range between $ 10,000 and $16,000 annually.

Issues unrelated to finances need to be addressed when marketing graduate education programs. One challenge is a lack of understanding about the social and administrative sciences among pharmacy students. Anecdotal reports from SAS faculty members indicate that professional students often question the relevance of SAS courses to pharmacy practice. This perceived lack of relevance and resulting disinterest in SAS courses as undergraduates may contribute to a lack of pharmacist interest in pharmacy-related SAS graduate programs or careers.