European Pharmaceutical Students' Association
| European Pharmaceutical Students' Association (EPSA) |
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| founding | 1982 |
| Seat | Brussels , Belgium |
| motto | Bringing Pharmacy, Knowledge and Students together |
| main emphasis | Student organization |
| Chair | Eva Shannon Schiffrer |
| Website | www.epsa-online.org |
European Pharmaceutical Students' Association (EPSA, German Association of European Pharmacy Students ) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization with no political or religious orientation. The association includes 41 national associations from 33 European countries, which represent around 120,000 pharmacy students. The headquarters of EPSA is in Brussels in the office headquarters of the European pharmacists' association PGEU . Before the time in Brussels, the EPSA headquarters was in Leiden , the Netherlands .
history
In 1978 the Association of French Pharmacy Students (ANEPF) invited pharmacy students from other European countries to its annual congress in Nancy . The reason for this invitation was to initiate a discussion about the progress of the European Community in the mutual recognition of university degrees and to make a fundamental comparison of the pharmacy studies in different countries. The discussion turned out to be more difficult than expected and all participants agreed that further discussion is needed. For this reason, the proposal was made to the International Association of Pharmacy Students ( IPSF ) to set up a European Sub-Committee (ESC European Sub-Committee) for this purpose. Later that year, at the IPSF Annual Congress in Edinburgh , United Kingdom , this proposal was accepted.
In 1982, the sub-committee was independent, changed its name to European Pharmaceutical Students' Committee and was the Tribunal of Illkirch officially registered in France. The main purpose of the newly founded association was to work on the mutual recognition of university qualifications in pharmacy in Europe in order to facilitate and promote the social mobility of pharmacists.
EPSA was given its existing name ten years after achieving independence at the 15th annual congress in Helsinki , Finland ; at the 16th annual congress in Tübingen , Germany, the name became official.
structure
General Assembly
According to the statutes and rules of procedure, the highest decision-making body is the general assembly. It is convened twice a year, on the one hand during the annual congress in April and on the other hand during the autumn assembly in October. This enables smooth processes within the association, while at the same time important decisions, including changes to the statutes or rules of procedure, can be made. EPSA members have the right to vote in every association vote. In order to be able to exercise this right, the members have to present the annual reports to their EPSA contact person at each general assembly and pay their membership fees.
Parliamentary Council
The Parliamentary Council is the supervisory authority of the association, guaranteeing that all decisions are made according to the necessary guidelines and intervening in case of doubt. The council is composed of three members, one of whom is elected as a parliamentarian. Each member should come from a different member country.
Offices
Board
The board regulates all affairs of the association and cooperates with the individual members.
The European Sub-Committee (ESC) started with only one board member, the President, but as the workload increased, the need for additional board members grew. At the ESC Congress of 1982 a board was elected for the first time; until 1998 this board - consisting of the president, the vice-president, the general secretary and the treasurer - was elected at the congress, while the rest of the board was only appointed additionally. The entire board has been elected at the congress since 1998 and its work is supported by various sub-committees.
The executive board was later expanded to include the offices of “Sponsorship Officer” and “EU Officer”. The sponsorship officer is responsible for helping EPSA to build stable capital through partnerships with various companies and organizations, while the EU officer is responsible for ensuring that EPSA is recognized as the voice of European pharmacy students and an influential contributor to EU politics Level becomes.
In an effort to optimize the work of the Board of Directors, additional offices were created and five vice-presidencies were established. The current board consists of nine members, seven elected and two appointed:
- President
- Vice President for Education
- Secretary General
- Treasurer
- Vice President for Home Affairs
- Vice President for Mobility
- Vice President for External Affairs
- Vice President for Public Relations
- Current Past President (appointed)
Contact persons
The liaison officers are elected or appointed by the respective member organizations and have the task of ensuring the implementation of EPSA projects at local level and of maintaining contact between the national member organization and the EPSA board. These liaison officers are official delegates who have voting rights at the General Assembly.
Working groups
The working groups were set up at the 27th annual congress in Pomporovo Bulgaria . Each working group consists of a representative from each member organization and an elected chairman. Each group is dedicated to a certain subject area of pharmaceutical relevance and thus tries to effectively establish EPSA projects in this area of interest. There are seven such working groups: Professional Development, Public Health, Humanitarian, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Mobility, Pharmacy Education and Pharmacy Awareness.
Individual Mobility Project (IMP) coordinating body
The Individual Mobility Project (IMP) coordination body is working to advance the development of the "IMP" project as a whole. It consists of an overall IMP coordinator and national / local coordinators as representatives of their respective member organizations. The lead coordinator is elected at the EPSA annual meeting in April, while the local coordinators are elected or appointed by the national affiliates themselves.
Functionaries
You are responsible for certain administrative and bureaucratic tasks of the association. EPSA has five different functionaries in the areas of information technology, design, information, training and further education and event management.
Examination Board
The EPSA accounts are checked by the Audit Committee, which then submits its report to the General Assembly. The examination board consists of at least two people who are appointed by the Parliamentary Council and who, if possible, come from different member countries.
Chairman of the reception committee
The annual congress in April is the most important event in the association's annual course. This meeting is planned by both EPSA and the host organization. In order to guarantee that everything runs smoothly, the host has set up an organizational committee. Its chairman is appointed as the official EPSA delegate and invited to board meetings with the aim of linking the EPSA board as closely as possible with the organizing body.
Subcommittee on Finance
The sub-committee for finance consists of a maximum of four people including the chairman. The task of this committee is to carry out the tasks assigned by the board or the general assembly. The current committee consists of three people who are mainly concerned with applying for funding and drawing up concepts for permanent fundraising.
Member organizations
The ordinary member organizations are national associations of pharmacy students who come from European countries that are recognized by the European Council as independent states. The association also has so-called extraordinary members; these are student associations that do not represent the majority of the pharmaceutical faculties in their country. In total, this amounts to 41 regular member organizations in 33 countries:
- Armenian Pharmaceutical Students` Federation (ArmPSA)
- Academic Association of Austrian Pharmacists (AFÖP)
- Farmaceutica (Belgium)
- Student Association of Pharmacy Faculty Sarajevo (SAFF) (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
- Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Students' Association (BPhSA)
- Croatian Pharmaceutical Students' Association (CPSA)
- Cyprus International University Pharmacy Students' Association (CIUPSA)
- Union of Pharmacy Students Brno (USF) (Czech Republic)
- Association: Czech Pharmaceutical Students' Association (CPSA)
- Students of Pharmaceutical Sciences (SOP) (Denmark)
- Finnish Pharmaceutical Students' Association (FiPSA)
- Association Nationale des Etudiants en Pharmacie de France (ANEPF)
- Federal Association of Pharmacy Students in Germany (BPhD)
- Greek Pharmaceutical Students Federation (GPSF)
- Hungarian Pharmaceutical Students' Association (HuPSA)
- Irish Pharmaceutical Students' Association (IPSA)
- Associazione Italiana Studenti di Farmacia (AISFA)
- Latvijas Farmacijas Studentu Asociacija (LPSA)
- Lithuanian Pharmaceutical Students' Association (LtPSA)
- Lithuanian Pharmaceutical Students' Association (LtPSA)
- Malta Pharmaceutical Students' Association (MPSA)
- Union of Students of Faculty of Pharmacy (USFP)
- Norwegian Pharmaceutical Students' Association (NoPSA)
- Young Pharmacy Poland (YP)
- Associação Portuguesa de Estudantes de Farmácia (APEF)
- Associação dos Estudantes da Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Lisboa (AEFFUL) (Portugal)
- Núcleo de Estudantes de Ciências Farmacêuticas da Universidade da Beira Interior (UBIPharma) (Portugal)
- Federatia Asociatiilor Studentilor Farmacisti din Romania (FASFR)
- Societatea Studentilor in Farmacie Bucuresti (SSFB)
- HCCM (Russia)
- National Association of Pharmacy Students - Serbia (NAPSer)
- SPSA (Slovakia)
- Students' Section of the Slovenian Pharmaceutical Society (ŠSSFD)
- Federación Española de Estudiantes de Farmacia (FEEF)
- Swedish National Association of Pharmaceutical Students (SNAPS)
- association suisse des étudiants en pharmacie (asep)
- Koninklijke Nederlandse Pharmaceutische Studenten Vereniging (KNPSV)
- Istanbul University Pharmaceutical Students' Association
- Marmara University Pharmaceutical Students' Association (MUPSA)
- Association of Hacettepe University Pharmacy Students (AHUPS)
- Association: British Pharmaceutical Students' Association (BPSA)
Board of Trustees
The board of trustees is made up of working pharmacists who support the EPSA board with their specialist knowledge and contacts. The members are:
- Bart Rombaut
- Dick Tromp
- Jaka Brumen
- Ian Bates
- Hubertus Cranz
- John Chave
- Roberto Frontini
- Franciska Desplenter
- Raisa Laaksonen
- Hans Linden
- Brigitte Franke-Bray
Honorary members
Honorary membership is granted to people who have performed special services for the association. The honorary members are elected by the general assembly with a two-thirds majority. Current honorary members are:
- 2000 Niamh Fitzgerald
- 2001 Ivana Silva
- 2002 Diogo Cruz
- 2002 Michael Gafa
- 2003 Sean McAteer
- 2003 Lucija Sotosek
- 2004 Jorrit Peter Neumann
- 2006 Timo Mohnani
- 2007 Vaiva Deltuvaitė
- 2007 Jaka Brumen
- 2008 Alena Petrikova
- 2009 Boštjan Čeh
- 2009 Jūratė Švarcaitė
Events
Annual congress
The annual congress is the organization's largest and most important event. It usually takes place in April and lasts for a week. Here all members have the opportunity to meet and discuss EPSA and their profession in general. The congress also includes an educational program (workshops and trainings), a social framework program and is also the date on which the first general assembly of the new year is held. This year the 33rd annual congress will take place in Krakow , Poland , from April 26th to May 2nd, 2010. During the congress, the new EPSA team will be elected by the full members for a term of one year.
Autumn meeting
The autumn meeting usually takes place in October and is the second most important event. The main purpose of this gathering is to look back on the work of the association in the second half of the year and to motivate yourself for the work. The second general assembly of the year will also be held during the autumn assembly. The autumn assembly has been organized in cooperation with the ESCP (European Society of Clinical Pharmacy) since 2004 and thus provides space for three combined events: the second annual EPSA congress, the EPSA / ESCP symposium and the ESCP- Symposium. In 2009 EPSA organized this event for the first time in collaboration with the DIA (Drug Information Association).
Summer university
As another important event, it usually takes place in July and is characterized primarily by scientific lectures and a social supporting program. Unlike the other meetings, no general assembly will be held during the Summer University. In 2009 the summer university took place for the 11th time.
Annual reception
The Annual Reception takes place every February in Brussels. The main thing here is that the team presents its work and projects to the board of trustees, the partners and all those who are interested in the work of the EPSA. At a round table chaired by the President, work and projects are discussed with the cooperation partners. Each year the board of directors chooses a specific focus for this reception; in the 2009/2010 term of office the topic was "EPSA-IMP project".
WHSS - World Healthcare Students' Symposium
The WHSS is a multi-professional, four-day conference that brings together students from the health sector. The first such symposium took place in Malta from November 7th to 12th, 2005 ; 230 medical, pharmacy and nursing students from 42 countries met here. The main goal was to network the health professions more closely and to create a basis for discussion and action for interdisciplinary patient care. Many student organizations such as EPSA are involved in the organization of the WHSS, such as the International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA), International Pharmaceutical Students' Federation (IPSF), the European Nursing Students' Association (ENSA), the International Council of Nurses - Student Network (ICN-SN) and the European Medical Students' Association (EMSA).
Publications
Newsletter
The newsletter is the organization's public information organ and is published three times a year and distributed to all members, cooperation partners and sponsors. The newsletter contains articles by EPSA delegates, members and those from experts and thus tries to exchange experiences between these groups. In addition, the newsletter offers students of the member organizations the opportunity to share and exchange ideas and experiences. In addition, the newsletter provides information on pharmaceutically relevant political events in Europe and upcoming events. Each member organization receives copies of the newsletter that can be distributed to students and interested parties. The total circulation per issue is 5000 copies.
Information letter
The information letter contains information for European pharmacy students. It is published every month by the Information Officer and contains current EU policy and relevant scientific information. The letter is sent by email to all students, lecturers and professionals in the pharmaceutical industry who belong to the EPSA-News-e-group and is also available on the official EPSA website.
Circular
The circular contains the most important up-to-date information on EPSA projects and activities. It is a platform to promote EPSA work and present current results. The letter is also sent twice a month by e-mail to all members who belong to the EPSA News e-group and is also available on the official EPSA website. Each member organization receives an electronic form of the letter and is responsible for distributing it to the students.
Annual report
The annual report provides an overview of all decisions made by the EPSA team during its mandate. This includes the work results of workshops and the results of the annual questionnaire. The current Past President is responsible for the compilation and publication of this report; it is sent to all students, cooperating organizations, EPSA members and all pharmaceutical faculties in Europe. The report is the official mouthpiece of European pharmacy students and is used to clearly position themselves with regard to special topics.
Projects
Individual Mobility Project (IMP)
The IMP project is a long-term project that is primarily intended to give pharmacy students in their main studies and students who already have a degree the opportunity to gain practical experience abroad, including in research. In addition, IMP offers an opportunity to experience European diversity, as is always suggested by the European Commission . The project allows students from the EPSA member states who take part in the IMP to gain professional experience, also during the practical year. The project can be carried out in the pharmaceutical industry, a public pharmacy or at university institutions for 2 to 12 months.
Annual survey
Each year a specific topic is selected for the annual questionnaire. The questionnaire is then distributed to the member organizations who hand it out to their students. After evaluating the questionnaires, the results are presented to professional organizations.
Lifelong Learning Certificate - Certificate for lifelong learning
The “Certificate for Lifelong Learning” offers pharmacy students who already take part in advanced training events and educational measures at EPSA during their studies the opportunity to collect so-called credit points. In addition, lifelong training is encouraged at an early stage. Anyone who can prove five advanced training credits in one year (April to March) receives the LLC certificate.
Training camps
This new concept was introduced in 2005. Training camps are workshops on topics that are not included in the actual pharmacy curriculum, such as: B. Project management, communication and consulting, and thus enables students to learn additional soft skills . The participating students are also trained to become trainers. In this way, the knowledge acquired can be passed on at national level. In 2009, a new position was created in the EPSA team specifically for the successful implementation of these camps, namely that of "training officer".
EPSA super duper database
The aim of this project is to build an online database with all relevant information for EPSA and its members. This database should be available on the EPSA homepage and accessible to all European pharmacy students. It should contain information about the different curricula of the European countries (number of semesters, curriculum), as well as information about the job description of the pharmacist (list of pharmaceutical organizations in the respective country, important institutions in the health care system, density of pharmacists, etc.) and the specific characteristics of the respective member states ( Currency, climate, cost of living ...). This information is primarily intended to help students who are interested in going abroad; all information is collected by the EPSA team during the mandate period and archived in the database.
Alumni database
The aim of the alumni project is to network the organization and win it over to advanced training events. An alumni weekend workshop is to be offered during the annual congress; an alumni magazine is also to be founded, and a section on the EPSA homepage is to be devoted entirely to the topic. In addition, an online platform is to be set up on which all relevant information about the alumni project will be collected - the EPSA alumni database.
Pharmine project
The Pharmine consortium consists of four universities ( Brussels , Nancy , London and Lisbon ) that are members of the European Association of Faculties of Pharmacy (EAFP). Pharmine is investigating the possibility of implementing the principles of the Bologna process in pharmaceutical training and trying to adapt the training to the future requirements of pharmaceutical expertise in the three core areas - public pharmacy, hospital pharmacy and pharmaceutical industry. EPSA is an important cooperation partner of Pharmine, which supports the consortium in achieving its goal. This is: the development of a uniform curriculum for pharmacy training in the EU, which is then to be presented to the European Commission, national decision-making bodies and professional associations.
TWINNET project
The project is designed so that pharmacy students from different countries can exchange cultural information over a short period of time. The exchange can be bilateral (TWIN), trilateral (THREEN) or multilateral (QUATRINO, MULTI-Exchange projects). For the current year, a topic will be chosen as a common thread for the exchange during the first general assembly. The liaison officers of the participating member organizations are responsible for the organization and implementation of the project. You can get help from the Vice President for Social Mobility, who is there to help you apply for funding.
Monthly Question Overview
The Monthly Questions Overview is an informative letter that is published each month by the Vice President for Education and contains an overview of the current work of the working groups (see above). After they have written their monthly report, the chairpersons of the working groups send a brief summary to the Vice-President, which is then sent to the above-mentioned Overview is included to give everyone an insight into what's going on over the past month. The letter will be distributed via the EPSA newsgroup.
Lobbying in the EU
The organization does lobby work. EPSA is also in contact with several employees of the EU Commission (DG SANCO [Directorate General for Health and Consumer Affairs] and DG ENTR [Directorate General Enterprise and Industry]) and members of parliament about the EPSA positions on pharmacovigilance and pharmaceuticals Clarify Care.
EPSA-IPSF
IPSF International Pharmaceutical Students' Federation represents 350,000 pharmacy students and pre-examiners from 75 countries worldwide. IPSF is an interest group for pharmacy students and, like EPSA, a non-profit, non-governmental organization with no political or religious orientation. The Presidents of EPSA and IPSF sign a Memorandum of Understanding every two years , which guarantees the mutual invitation to a board meeting of the respective organization and stipulates that at such a meeting room for discussions about the future cooperation of the two organizations is planned. The document also defines measures for permanent communication between EPSA and IPSF, for example through joint publications and events. EPSA and IPSF also work together in organizing the WHSS; In 2009 both organizations organized a joint training day as part of the EPSA Autumn Assembly.