In the fall of 2009, York College will become the first City University of New York (CUNY) school and the only school in the Metropolitan area to offer a four-year Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences, York’s dean of academic affairs, Panayiotis Meleties, said.
“It was a natural opportunity,” Meleties explained, noting the program will allow York to collaborate further with the United States Food and Drug Administration’s Northeast Regional Laboratory, which is housed on the school’s campus.
Meleties added that the Pharmaceutical Sciences program would be a “hybrid program,” grounded in courses like chemistry, biology and biotechnology that are already established at the school. A bulk of the program would utilize existing faculty so its implementation would not have much of an impact on York’s or CUNY’s operating budgets, Panayiotis said.
The aim of the B.S. program – which the college and faculty hope to grow over time – is to prepare students for pharmaceutical industry careers ranging from drug research and discovery to manufacturing, medicine formulations, clinical evaluation and even legal affairs. Additionally, Meleties said, the program will train students for jobs in related fields that require “highly technical skills and lab work,” as well as training in regulatory affairs on both the federal and global levels.
“In a sense, the program is a gateway program to endless opportunities for the students who can enter a very competitive work field and very competitive industries,” Meleties said, calling Pharmaceutical Sciences a “really rewarding” and “emerging” field.
He added that the program would lead to potentially lucrative careers and enable graduates to contribute to “the welfare of society.”
Tuition for the four-year program – which is the same as CUNY’s other programs – is less than $5,000 per year for New York State residents.
York also expects to launch a journalism program in the fall of 2009 and a nursing program in the spring of 2010.
