in addition to courses in english, mathematics, and computer science. iran in 1930 tehran university changed the pharmacy degree from master's to doctorate, and the duration of the study was increased to 5 years. graduates need to present and defend their theses in different fields of pharmacy, and this adds another year to their studies, and generally after 6 years students can graduate as doctor in pharmacy. the master's degree in pharmacy was available in tehran university since 1926. israel in israel the pharmd-program is offered only by the hebrew university of jerusalem. unlike the united states and european countries, in order to practice pharmacy in israel, only a bachelor's degree is required. palestine in palestine, the pharmd-program is offered by the birzeit university also in al-najah university as a bachelor program. the program takes a duration of 6 years with the sixth year as a practicum year. pharmd-program faces challenges with legislation in palestine, it is not fully approved as a major and it is not given its full value, instead graduates can fill employment positions such as pharmacists or pharmacists assistant. jordan in jordan, the pharmd-program is offered by the university of jordan, this link has videos of all programs available at the school of pharmacy of the university of jordan, and jordan university of science and technology at the undergraduate level. this program is not to be confused with the bsc in pharmacy program even though both programs are still offered today. students complete 5 years of academic work and 1 year of clinical practice to earn the degree. this program is offered at public universities only: at the university of jordan and jordan university of science and technology. the university of jordan calls this degree bsc in doctor of pharmacy, which is granted after successful completion of 216 credit hours. the jordan university of science and technology has a similar credit hour requirement and calls the degree the bsc. of doctor of pharmacy degree. lebanon pharmacy degree is awarded by several lebanese universities (upon a decree by the lebanese government). the lebanese american university awards a doctor of pharmacy (pharm.d.) degree that is accredited by the acpe. the program extends over six years (two years of pre-pharmacy and four professional years). qatar in qatar, pharmacy degrees are offered by the new college of pharmacy at qatar university. students were accepted into the 5-year bsc (pharm) program commencing in 2007. students will be accepted into the final year of the 6-year pharm.d program in 2011. accordingly, the first graduates of the pharm.d program are expected in 2012. the program adopts a canadian curriculum and received early accreditation by the canadian council for accreditation of pharmacy programs (ccapp) in february 2009. this is the first international program to undergo review and receive accreditation by this sole canadian accreditation agency. saudi arabia started in 2001 at king abdulaziz university, then in 2005 at ibn-sina national college, then 2006 at kfu, then 2007 at qassim university. in 2008, king saud university college of pharmacy at riyadh, college of pharmacy at kharj, and taif university. in 2009, almaarefa college started their pharm.d. program, and shaqra university in 2011. the degree duration in saudi arabia is six years in total, including one academic year of clinical rotations. according to the saudi commission for health specialties, if a student graduates with a (minimum six years) pharm.d. degree, then the graduate has the chance to further develop himself. this can be achieved by taking an accredited residency training program that is at least one year long (for a total of seven years, minimum). upon successfully completing both the residency program and the pharm.d., the graduate can apply for professional equivalent (only equivalent in practice) to the master's degree in pharmacy. the pharm.d degree is now offered by almost all pharmacy colleges in saudi arabia. this is a transitional period as this degree will replace the conventional bachelor of pharmacy degree in the near future and the old bachelor's degree will be phased out. united arab emirates the doctor of pharmacy program started in 2008 by the college of pharmacy, at gulf medical university, ajman. and it is accredited by the ministry of education accreditation north america canada currently, in canada, the bpharm (and not pharm.d.) is the minimum qualification required to practice pharmacy. in canada the pharm.d. program is offered in both english and french, and as a first professional degree as well as a postgraduate degree. students enrolled in the program must have graduated from a ccapp (canadian council for accreditation of pharmacy programs) or an acpe (accreditation council for pharmacy education) school with an accredited teaching program or must have obtained a certificate of qualification from pebc. as of 2007, the pharmd professional degree program in french is offered at the université de montréal and, as of 2011, at the université laval. the université de montréal was the first canadian university to offer the pharm.d. program as a first professional degree instead of the bpharm in pharmacy. in 2013, the university of alberta would be offering a pharm.d. as a post-professional degree, and a bpharm is required for admission into the program. the university of toronto replaced their entry-level bpharm curriculum with an entry-to-practice pharm.d. curriculum in 2011, with approval being granted in 2013. the pharmd. degree is also offered as an undergraduate professional degree at the university of british columbia and the university of toronto. however, since 2020, most, if not all canadian pharmacy schools have changed their entry-to-practice programs that awarded successful graduates with a bachelor of pharmaceutical sciences to entry-to-practice pharmd as the scope of practice for pharmacists continue to expand and change. since this change, ubc no longer has a separate 2-year pharm.d. program that is offered. on 23 january 2013, the government of ontario approved the university of toronto and the university of waterloo applications for the entry-to-practice doctor of pharmacy (pharm.d.) program. students graduating in 2015 was the first cohort under this new undergraduate pharm.d. program. dalhousie university (halifax, nova scotia) is in progress of transitioning to the pharm.d. program. undergraduate applicants will require a minimum two years of prerequisite courses. in the fall of 2017, memorial university of newfoundland (st. john's, newfoundland and labrador), also replaced their bpharm program with the pharm.d. program, with the first graduating class expected in 2022. this program requires one full year of prerequisite courses. in the fall of 2018, the university of alberta (edmonton, alberta) replaced their four-year bsc. pharm program with an entry to practise pharmd. program, also with the first graduating class expected in april 2022. however, since the spring of 2017 the university has offered current bsc. pharm students the ability to bridge to the pharmd. program. this requires the students to take two extra summer semesters between their third and fourth years, as well as an extra 16 weeks of clinical rotations during their fourth year. only students graduating between 2018 and 2021 will have had this option. as a result, currently the university is offering 3 possible means to obtain a pharmd degree. that is the 2 year pharmd program for practising pharmacists, those in the pharmd for bsc. pharm students (pbs), and those in the entry to practise pharmd program. bsc. pharm students who did not enrol in the pbs program between 2018 and 2021 will be the final students to graduate with a bachelor's degree from the faculty. united states the doctor of pharmacy (pharm.d.) is a professional degree that offers opportunities in research, teaching, clinical practice, industry, manufacturing, judicial, and a multitude of other areas. six pharmacy schools in the u.s. still offer a high school student to enroll directly into the school of pharmacy for a six-year pharmd. degree. in most other schools of pharmacy, after completing the required prerequisites or obtaining a transferable bachelor's degree, pharmacy school is another four years. in general, the total collegiate timeline to become an entry-level pharmacist is six to eight years; three to four years undergraduate prerequisite is a bachelor's degree then 3 to 4 years (accelerated track) professional doctorate. acceptance to a pharm.d. program is competitive. along with excellent natural science grades, most schools require students to take a pharmacy college admissions test (pcat) and complete 90 credit hours of university coursework in the sciences, mathematics, composition, and humanities before entry into the pharm.d. program. due to the extensive admission requirements and highly competitive nature of the field, many pharmacy students complete a bachelor's degree before entry to pharmacy school. some institutions still offer six-year accelerated pharm.d. programs (similar to six-year md programs). residency is an option that is typically one to two years in length. graduating candidates typically apply their final year of the pharm.d. program. the accrediting body for most residency positions is the american society of health-system pharmacists. applications are submitted through the pharmacy online residency centralized application service; which opens november 3 each residency year. residency sites interview candidates and a ranking occurs prior to a match process. "the match" is facilitated via the national matching services inc. in conjunction with pharmacy online residency centralized application service website portal. a residency is useful; especially for new graduates who do not yet have adequate patient care experience or potentially seeking accelerated and additional experiential training. an acpe accredited doctorate of pharmacy (pharm.d.) is currently the only degree accepted by the national association of boards of pharmacy (nabp) to be eligible to "sit" for the north american pharmacist licensure examination (naplex). history previously, the united states had a five-year bachelor's degree in pharmacy. up until the school of pharmacy graduating class of 1964, in all states with the exception of a few on the west coast, the requirement to sit for a pharmacy license was four years of a licensed college of pharmacy concentrating in the practice of pharmacy during much of that time. the incoming class of 1961, in anywhere but the west coast, was required to take a five-year university course, culminating in a bachelor of science degree in pharmacy. in most schools of pharmacy, that meant two years pre-pharmacy and three years in the actual school of pharmacy, with graduation in 1966, although some schools were either 1 and 4 or 3 and 2. the current pharm.d. degree curriculum is considerably different from that of the prior b.s. in pharmacy. it now includes extensive didactic clinical preparation, hands-on clinical practice experience in a wider array of healthcare settings, and a greater emphasis on clinical pharmacy practice pertaining to pharmacotherapy optimization. requirements in the us to becoming a pharmacist include graduating with a doctor of pharmacy from an acpe accredited program, conducting a specified number of hours in internship under a licensed pharmacist (i.e. 1800 hours in some states), passing the naplex, and passing a multistate pharmacy jurisprudence examination (mpje). for pharmacy graduates holding the bachelor of science degrees currently licensed in the united states wishing to attain the pharm.d., there are programs available to bridge that gap. these programs are fully accredited by accreditation council for pharmacy education (acpe), but they are only available to current b.s.pharm. graduates with a license to practice pharmacy in the united states. mexico the pharmacy program in mexico is similar to that of spain's program but differs vastly from its neighbors up north in the united states and canada. south america brazil in brazil the title of pharmacist is awarded after completion of certified graduate studies; while the term pharm.d. is not formally regulated it can be used and is commonly added to the graduate's professional license (issued by the regional pharmacy (conselho regional de farmacia)). many universities award sub-titles or co-titles including biochemist and industrial pharmacist. university of são paulo and a few others have awarded specialization titles for many years for their pharmacy and biochemistry graduate students, including toxicological and clinical analysis, food and nutrition and industrial pharmacy, which are also equivalent to different degrees in the us and europe. whereas bachelor of pharmacy takes a minimum of 4 years, the pharmacist-biochemist degree is completed by 4 and 1/2 years of full-time studies with at least 720 hours of internship. the student can opt to get the degree during evening and it takes 6 years with saturday classes (full day) and also at least 720 hrs of