Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) held a socialization for the D3 Pharmacy program to more than 300 students of Vocational High Schools from all over Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi at the D501 Building, UPH, Lippo Village. These students came from six schools namely, SMK Farmasi Swadaya Global School Jakarta, SMK Farmasi Harapan Massa Depok, SMK Farmasi Tunas Mandiri Bogor, SMK Farmasi Perjuangan dan Peradaban Depok, and SMK Farmasi Bogor.

D3 Pharmacy is a new major that was launched last year, and its first batch has started since the 2018/2019 academic year with 40 students. According to Dr. Eric Jobiliong, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology (FaST) UPH, this major was created to participate in the making of Indonesia?s Pharmaceutical Technical Personnel (TKK). This purpose is in line with the government?s law in Constitution No. 36 year 2014, which states that on 2020, Pharmaceutical Technical Personnel must be a D3 graduate at minimum. However, the data from Indonesian Pharmacist Association (IAI) shows that the ration for the need of pharmacist in Indonesia is still far from the ideal. Ideally, the ratio of pharmacist compared to the people of Indonesia should be 1 : 4.000-5.000. But according to a data in 2014, this ratio has not been fulfilled because it was still in the ration of 1 : 8000. Because of that, UPH decided to open a D3 program for the Pharmacy major.

Aside from that, a lecturer of D3 Pharmacy UPH, Febbyasi Megawaty explained that the program will take three years with 108 credits to take. In the program there will theory class, lab, projects, internship, and a final project. Graduates of D3 Pharmacy UPH will get an Associate (A.Md.) degree, and will be working as TKK in hospitals, apothecaries, and the pharmacy industry.

She also explained the excellences of the D3 Pharmacy in UPH such as wide networking and collaboration with the Siloam Hospital, the availability of teaching staffs who graduates from Indonesia and other foreign countries, as well as being supported with lab facilities and scholarships up to 100%.

Further explanation about this program was also presented by Jessica Novia, another lecturer in D3 Pharmacy UPH, who talked about how does studying the Diploma 3 program is better than bachelor program. Looking the efficiency perspective, the education fee for D3 program is obviously cheaper, which might be a consideration for those who wants to work directly after they graduate,? Jessica explained.

Jessica also appreciated all participants who had been so enthusiastic about this event. She hopes that this socialization can bring a positive impact for these students, who might want to become a Pharmaceutical Technical Personnel. In this event, there were some announcement on the benefits for the registrant of D3 Pharmacy UPH in form of a 50% discount for the purchase of registration form and a special discount on entry tuition fee which will end on October 26, 2018. (it)