Message from Head of Department

Professor Ian C.K. WONG
Head of Department
Lo Shiu Kwan Kan Po Ling Professor in Pharmacy
Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy
LKS Faculty of Medicine
The University of Hong Kong

Hello and thank you for your interest in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, The University of Hong Kong. It gives me great pleasure in introducing to you the teaching and learning as well as research of our department.

We started as Department of Pharmacology in 1965, teaching mainly medical students. In 2008, the department was renamed officially to Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy; and followed by the launching of the Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) programme in 2009. Over the years, colleagues and students, local and overseas, have come together for pursuit of higher knowledge, and devoting their creativity in research and education for betterment of the common good.

In the past decade, teaching and learning here, has evolved in response to the society’s growing demand of Pharmacist playing an essential part in the medical world. To prepare our students to become modern Pharmacist, we have brought in the curriculum both the experiential and inter-professional learning. We provide students the opportunities to learn in the teaching pharmacies, that we set up in collaboration with NGOs and hospitals in Hong Kong to experience what Pharmacy is like in the community; and to broaden their scope of knowledge in the course of exchange with other healthcare professions. The ‘integrated courses of body series’ introduced into the curriculum in 2019 has opened our students to a new dynamic of understanding how pharmacology and pharmacy organically works. To complement the passing of knowledge and expertise from our teachers to the students, we have adopted problem-based learning approach with the aim to develop students’ critical thinking, and equip them with the skills to handle problems under rapidly changing conditions.

Leading from the BPharm programme, if learners wish to further their studies, they can take Master of Advanced Pharmacy (MAP). It is a liberal programme where students can choose stream and courses that fit for their career path. And for those who would like to continue with post-graduate studies, our MPhil and PhD programmes supervised by outstanding academics would be the solid foundation to work on. To compound our research strength in leading Asian research centre in cardiovascular and metabolic pharmacy, researchers here are also working on professional big data research for the benefit of medicine and healthcare. For people who would like to exercise their grey cells at academic investigation, our department would certainly be a welcoming ground to do so.

Since our inception in 1965 to the present day, to provide quality teaching and conductive research environment are the education values we have held dear. I hope you will join us to set foot on the department soil and embark on a meaningful journey. Looking forward to seeing you.

HKU Graduates

Over 230 local registered pharmacists graduated from HKU Pharmacy. They are now in different roles in their pharmacy career. Click to see how they equip themselves with essential skills and knowledge from HKU pharmacy curriculum.