Pharmaceutical Engineering Major

1. Major (Specialization) Name: Pharmaceutical Engineering

2. Academic System:Four years

3. Academic Degree: Bachelor of Engineering

4.Major Introduction (including training objectives, professional characteristics and advantages):

Pharmaceuticals are a great undertaking related to human life and health, and the pharmaceutical industry is internationally recognized as a "evergreen sunrise industry ." The overall development trend of the pharmaceutical industry is very clear. Population aging, urbanization, increased health awareness, and the continuous expansion of disease spectrum will all promote the sustained growth of pharmaceutical demand. The birth of a drug embodies the wisdom and efforts of countless scientific research and production personnel, possesses enormous economic and social benefits, safeguards human health, and promotes the evolution of life.

Pharmaceutical Engineering is an engineering major that applies the principles and methods of chemistry, pharmacy (traditional Chinese pharmacy), biology, and engineering disciplines to research and solve common problems such as technology, engineering and quality management in the standardized production process of drugs. It provides theoretical guidance, design schemes, and technical assurance for the transition of drugs from research and development to production. The following is a brief introduction to the training objectives, professional characteristics and advantages of the Pharmaceutical Engineering major in our university.

Training Objectives:

Based in Central South China, radiating the whole country, the Pharmaceutical Engineering major serves the regional economic construction and the main battlefield of the pharmaceutical industry. It aims to cultivate students with all-round development in morality, intelligence, physique, aesthetics, and labor skills, possessing a high sense of social responsibility, good professional ethics, profound humanistic literacy, and solid professional qualities. Students will master solid foundational knowledge, scientific theories, and professional skills in pharmaceutical engineering, develop strong abilities to analyze and solve complex pharmaceutical engineering problems, and possess good innovative thinking, entrepreneurial awareness, and teamwork spirit. The program aims to cultivate students into high-quality professional and technical talents capable of undertaking work in product research and development, engineering design, production management, quality control, and product services in the pharmaceutical and related fields.

Professional Characteristics and Advantages: 

The predecessor of the Pharmaceutical Engineering major was the Chemical Pharmaceutical major, which was founded in 1975. It is one of the two earliest engineering chemical pharmaceutical majors established in China. It was renamed Pharmaceutical Engineering in 1998; obtained the right to confer a Master's degree in Biochemical Engineering in 1999; the course "Pharmaceutical Process Design" was recognized as a National-Level Quality Course in 2007, and the same year the major was awarded the title of Hubei Provincial Brand Major; it became a National-Level Characteristic Major in 2008; obtained the National-Level Teaching Team for Pharmaceutical Engineering in 2010; was selected for the national "Outstanding Engineer" Talent Training Program in 2012 and obtained the right to confer a Master's degree in Pharmaceutical Engineering the same year; obtained the right to confer a Master's degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 2013; the course "Pharmaceutical Process Design" was recognized as a National-Level Quality Resource Sharing Course in 2016, and received approval as one of the first batch of "National First-Class Undergraduate Offline Courses" in 2020. The disciplinary support of this major includes a doctoral program in Chemical Engineering and Technology (first-level discipline), a master's program in Pharmacy (first-level discipline), and three master's programs in secondary disciplines:Biochemical Engineering, Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Engineering. After over 40 years of professional construction and development, the Pharmaceutical Engineering major has consecutively won the first prize of Hubei Provincial Higher Education Teaching Achievement Award in 2005, 2009, 2013, and 2017, and the second prize in 2022, achieving a series of teaching reform research results. With distinct characteristics in engineering competence training, this major passed the China Engineering Education Professional Certification in 2018; was selected as one of the first batch of "National First-Class Undergraduate Majors" construction sites in 2019; and ranked 5th in the country for three consecutive years in the 2020-2022 China Top-Ranking Majors in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Categories.

5. Core Courses:

Organic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Biochemistry, Principles of Chemical Engineering, Drug Synthesis Reactions, Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Analysis, Pharmaceutical Technology, Pharmaceutical Process Design, Pharmaceutical Separation Engineering, Pharmaceutical Process Safety and Environmental Protection, Drug Production Quality Management Engineering.

6. Faculty Strength:

The Pharmaceutical Engineering major currently has 21 full-time faculty members, including 1 Dual-appointed Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 2 recipients of the State Council Special Government Allowance, 3 "Chutian Scholars" of Hubei Province, 4 doctoral supervisors, and 1 national-level teaching team for Pharmaceutical Engineering. Among the full-time teachers, 80.95% have senior professional titles, 76.19% have doctoral degrees, more than 80% have engineering or pharmacy backgrounds, more than 90% have enterprise or engineering practice experience, and 100% of professors teach undergraduate courses. This major has formed a "Dual-Qualified" teaching team and a grassroots teaching organization with a structure led by senior professors as program leaders, supported by young faculty as the backbone, underpinned by curriculum construction, guaranteed by quality monitoring, and based on industry-university-research collaboration, featuring advanced teaching philosophies, clear teaching reform goals, a reasonable structure, and high teaching quality.

7. Student Awards:

The college actively encourages and organizes students to participate in social practice and technological innovation practice activities. Based on the university's College Students' Practical Innovation Training Center, teachers and students of the Pharmaceutical Engineering major actively participate in various practical innovation and competition activities such as the "Internet +" College Students' Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, the National College Students' Pharmaceutical Engineering Design Competition, the National College Students' Pharmaceutical Garden Forum, the National Student Pharmaceutical Engineering Research Essay Competition, and the Hubei Provincial College Students' Chemistry (Chemical Engineering) Academic Innovation Achievement Report Meeting, and have achieved fruitful results. In the past three years, it has won 3 national first prizes, 6 second prizes, 8 third prizes, 1 provincial first prize, 4 university-level gold medals and 8 silver medals.

8. Employment Destinations:

Most of the graduates trained by this major serve in enterprises and institutions in the pharmaceutical and related fields, including pharmaceutical production enterprises, engineering design units, drug inspection units, drug administrative departments, drug operation enterprises, medical education units, drug research and development units, etc., engaged in scientific research, engineering design, new drug development, production management, quality control, pharmaceutical marketing and management, etc. In addition, some graduates are employed in other enterprises and institutions related to the Pharmaceutical Engineering major. The remaining graduates generally choose to further study for master's/doctoral degrees in related disciplines in well-known domestic universities or study abroad in the United States, Japan, Europe and other places. The social demand for this major is good. The employment rate of graduates in the past three years has been over 96%, and the postgraduate entrance examination rate has been at the forefront of the university. In 2022, the postgraduate admission rate reached as high as 62.8% (many candidates were admitted as master's students by prestigious universities such as Peking University, Zhejiang University, Wuhan University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Sichuan University, Tianjin University, and China Pharmaceutical University), and achieved a breakthrough in undergraduate students being recommended for admission to Tsinghua University. The average proportion of graduates engaged in work directly related to this major (professional counterpart rate) is 77.6%, and the average proportion of graduates engaged in work related to this major and related majors (professional relevance rate) is 91.2%. A large number of graduates serve as backbones in well-known pharmaceutical enterprises, universities and scientific research institutes.