New PharmD Curriculum

Trained for practice and built for what's next.

Temple University School of Pharmacy's redesigned PharmD launches in fall 2027 for the Class of 2031. With this thoughtful and practical new curricululm, you'll learn pharmacy the way it's practiced, from day one, and graduate ready for real practice.

Healthcare works best when served by integrated care teams and pharmacy as a profession is seeing constantly evolving practice standards. Our PharmD program is designed to train pharmacists for where the profession is going, not just where it has been.

What's different about the updated PharmD curriculum?

Our faculty spent two years evaluating our current curriculum and redesigning how the PharmD is taught, based on our current students' feedback and COEPA standards set by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP). What we teach in the Temple PharmD will stay the same, but the way the information is presented is evolving.

View the full curriculum here.

Diseases and treatments are learned together.

Many programs teach pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacotherapy in separate courses. Temple integrates them, so you study a disease and its treatment side by side. That supports stronger retention and lets you apply what you learn in real time.

Built around the patient care process.

The curriculum follows the five-step pharmacist patient care process: collect, assess, plan, implement, and follow up. It aligns with AACP's COEPA outcomes and ACPE Standards 2025.

Coursework organized by body systems that grows in complexity.

Course information follows body systems and disease states and adds complexity as you progress. This allows students to better connect what they’re learning and build knowledge. Each step gives you more chances to put your knowledge to work.

Shaped by Feedback

Faculty led the redesign of the curriculum but it was informed directly by student surveys and course feedback. Students asked for better integration of materials, so that's what we built.

Why Choose Temple

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125 Years of Excellence: founded in 1901, Temple has been training pharmacists and pharmaceutical professionals who make a real impact in the lives of their patients for more than a century.
Advocacy in Action: hands-on experience with underserved communities builds real-world advocacy skills.
Research Strength: you're backed by Temple's and TUSP's research strength as an R1 university, a resource many pharmacy programs don't have.
Career-Aligned: the curriculum maps to employer-desired skills across patient care, research, industry, public health, managed care, and more. 83% of graduates are offered a job or competitive training opportunity (fellowship, residency) by graduation.

FAQ for New Students

Have questions about what the updated curriculum means for you? Check out some common questions and answers below.

What was wrong with the old curriculum?

Nothing! It has helped thousands of students graduate and become successful pharmacists. There have been many changes in the educational outcomes, practice opportunities and expectations, and overall in healthcare since the PharmD curriculum was originally developed. This new curriculum is an intentional evolution informed by students, faculty, alumni, and preceptor feedback and updates to accreditation standards as a result in changes to pharmacy practice and expectations of graduates of PharmD programs. We always ask current students for their thoughts on how we could be better and this is one example of how we utilize that feedback. We remain committed to continuously improving all the work we do at TUSP.

Does this affect the graduation timeline or credit hours?

Your curriculum will remain the same as previous classes, but the content has been updated and will be taught in a different order. Your credit hours will decrease slightly from 144 to 141. The biggest change will be the structure of the curriculum.

Why is this happening?

Our focus is always on training pharmacists for where the profession is going (integrated care teams, evolving practice standards), and this new curriculum was developed with that in mind. We are constantly making updates to our programs to ensure they align with what you need to practice. This is just a larger update than we make on an annual basis.

Why aren’t you implementing the new curriculum and teaching methods for current students?

While current students will not see their formal curriculum change, they will see updates to some of the ways the materials are presented. Many of the best practices for the revised curriculum will be implemented for their classes. For instance, the Pharmacy Lab sequence will be changed so that significant emphasis will be shifted from compounding of sterile and non-sterile products to also include more contemporary pharmacist activities. Additional updates will be implemented throughout their program, just not to the extent as new students. Though improving content delivery, labs, etc. is something we will continue to do for our current students, changing the curriculum for students already enrolled would not be fair to them. Based on where students are in their courses, some work would end up repeated, other topics would be left out.

How do you know this new curriculum is better?

Developing and implementing a new curriculum is an intentional and carefully planned process, and the faculty and administration have invested significant time and effort in preparing for this transition. We recognize that being the first cohort may create some uncertainty for students, and we take that responsibility seriously. The curriculum has been intentionally designed to align with current educational standards and the evolving needs of the profession. We have developed detailed plans to monitor student experiences, academic progress, and curriculum effectiveness throughout implementation so that we can identify opportunities for improvement and adjust responsibly. We have also proactively strengthened student support for this transition, including the addition of an Assistant Director for Student Success who will help ensure that students have the resources, guidance, and support they need to succeed. In short, students are not being asked to “figure out” a new curriculum alongside us. They are entering a thoughtfully designed program that has been extensively planned, and we will be closely engaged with them throughout the process to ensure their success.

School of Pharmacy