Pharmacy Education Symposium 2009

Professor Ian Bates

Professor Ian Bates is Professor of Pharmacy Education at the School of Pharmacy, University of London and teaches undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.  He is a strong advocate for student‑centred and problem‑based learning within the pharmacy curriculum, and consults on curriculum design issues in higher education across Europe and further abroad.  As Head of Education for the university, he has the job of  progressing the organisational and policy development of pharmacy education at national and international levels and promoting informed debate, research and scholarly activity relating to higher education.

He is Editor-in-Chief of Pharmacy Education, an international journal for pharmaceutical education, which publishes peer reviewed research and development in both undergraduate and postgraduate fields.  He is aided by an editorial board comprising of pharmaceutical scientists and career educationalists drawn from 13 different countries.  A recognised and accessible forum for educational research and debate is much needed, particularly with quality issues in teaching and learning becoming ever more important around the globe.    

Ian's research interests include education (undergraduate and postgraduate), from both the behavioural and organisational perspectives, in addition to more mainstream pharmaceutical service themes, such as evidence-based pharmaceutical care, clinical pharmacy and therapeutics.  He jointly heads up the Centre for Applied Sciences in Pharmacy (CASP), a large research team of academic researchers, PhD students and research assistants, both UK and international, and publishes widely.   He is an executive committee member and Vice President of the European Association of Faculties of Pharmacy (EAFP), a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, and a Trustee for the European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association.

Ian has a first degree in pharmacy, and further advanced his studies in neuropharmacology, biopharmacy and toxicology before settling down to a career as a clinical pharmacist.  He was later tempted into an academic career, and has taught a wide range of subjects from clinical pharmacokinetics to medical sociology, which has consequently fuelled his reformist tendencies in higher education.  Applied statistics retains a particular attraction for Ian, but not for anyone else.