Four universities achieved a pass rate below 60 per cent in the June registration exam, newly released GPhC statistics reveal. 

The GPhC’s report on the June exam, which is published in meeting papers to be discussed at a council sitting on Thursday September 12, reveals that the five lowest performing universities were the University of Wolverhampton (51 per cent pass rate out of 72 students), the University of Central Lancashire (57 per cent), the University of Hertfordshire (58 per cent), the University of Keele (59 per cent) and the University of Bradford’s five-year ‘sandwich degree’ cohort (60 per cent). 

Of these, several saw their pass rates drop from the June 2023 registration exam. For example, 65.7 per cent of students from the University of Wolverhampton passed last year, as did 86 per cent of those on the University of Bradford’s five-year course.

The top-performing universities were Cardiff University (93 per cent pass rate), the University of Birmingham (92 per cent), the University of Strathclyde (91 per cent) and the universities of Sunderland and Nottingham (both 89 per cent). 

Commenting on the outcome of the assessment, the GPhC said that since June 2022 it has engaged with schools with “concerningly low” pass rates, forcing three to re-accredit their courses. 

These included the University of Lincoln, which returned a 64 per cent pass rate in the June exam this year. In March, the GPhC reported that it was unable to approve the revised course at Lincoln due to concerns over academic staffing levels and expertise and the university’s failure to provide adequate experiential learning opportunities. 

The universities of Lincoln and Hertfordshire are among those the regulator plans to keep tabs on in the upcoming November assessment “to determine if this is a trend we need to address beyond routine accreditation activity”.

Last year, the regulator voiced concerns about some MPharm courses accepting “students with significantly lower A-level grades”. 

There was an overall pass rate of 75 per cent out of 2,776 candidates who sat the June assessment. Female candidates, who comprised over two-thirds of the 2,336 individuals sitting the exam for the first time, had a slightly higher pass rate than male candidates (78 versus 75 per cent). 

As in previous years, candidates who completed their foundation training in the community pharmacy sector had the lowest pass rate, with 68 per cent of these 1,182 individuals passing. Candidates who completed cross-sector placements in hospital and general practice had the highest pass rate at 93 per cent, with those who did their foundation year in the hospital sector alone achieving a pass rate of 89 per cent. 

The GPhC reported that there was “one allegation of misconduct” which has been “progressed to a principal hearing,” and said it is also seeing an increase in candidates requesting reasonable adjustments “to accommodate specific learning needs”.