Benchmarking Pharmacy Education: A Meta-Analysis of the CHED BS Pharmacy Curriculum and Australia’s Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours) Program
Description
This study utilized a curated dataset comprising official curricular documents, regulatory frameworks, and institutional handbooks relevant to undergraduate pharmacy education in the Philippines and Australia. The dataset was constructed through a systematic document review guided by the PRISMA framework, ensuring transparency and reproducibility in source selection. The primary data sources included: 1. CHED Memorandum Order No. 25, s. 2021, which outlines the revised Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy curriculum mandated by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in the Philippines. 2. The Monash University Handbook (2023) detailing the structure, learning outcomes, and competency domains of the Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours) program in Australia. 3. Supplementary documents such as PACOP (Philippine Association of Colleges of Pharmacy) reports, the FIP Global Competency Framework, and select international pharmacy education standards were included to contextualize and validate thematic comparisons. The dataset was filtered to include only documents that explicitly described curricular structure, internship requirements, competency integration, and learning outcomes. Non-curricular materials, promotional content, and duplicate entries were excluded during the screening phase. The final dataset consisted of 10 documents, each subjected to thematic analysis. Each document was coded manually to extract information across six competency domains: Foundational Sciences, Clinical Integration, Pharmacoeconomics, Global Health, Informatics, and Research. These domains were selected based on international benchmarks and relevance to evolving pharmacy practice. Data were organized into comparative matrices and visualized using radar charts and flow diagrams (see Figure 1 and Figure 2). The dataset enabled a structured comparison of curricular emphasis, internship models, and thematic integration across two national contexts. It served as the foundation for identifying gaps, overlaps, and opportunities for harmonizing pharmacy education globally. All documents were publicly available and accessed between June and August 2025. This dataset is not numerical but qualitative and policy-driven, making it suitable for thematic synthesis and curriculum mapping. It reflects both regulatory intent and institutional implementation, offering insights into how competencies are prioritized and delivered in pharmacy education.