Students fume as B Pharm course at JNTUH started without approval of Pharmacy Council of India

Hyderabad: Not just the Integrated Dual Degree Programmes (IDP), but even the B Pharmacy course at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTUH), has started without getting the required approvals. B Pharmacy began at the campus college in 2024-25 with an intake of 66 seats.

The varsity officials said they could not apply to the Pharmacy Council of India’s (PCI) for approval last year as the application window was closed by the time they got the state’s nod to start the course.

“We are trying to get the course ratified from the PCI,” said Venkata Narasimha Reddy Guduru, principal, JNTUH University College of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

He said they have got the council’s approval for the academic year 2025-26.

“About a week back, we got approval for the coming academic year. Based on that, we are trying to get the course ratified for the previous year,” he added.

Now, as the first year has already started and even exams have been conducted, the varsity has to either shift students to some recognised college or get the course ratified at any cost. In fact, officials have already shifted the pharmacy campus to Sultanpur, which already has approval from PCI, for the academic year 2025-26.

“Students of 2024-25 batch will continue to suffer as they are the only pharmacy students at the Hyderabad campus right now. The varsity should not have started the course without getting PCI approval. Initially, they said it was approved by the executive council. But later, even that turned out to be false,” said J Dileep from the JNTUH Student Protection Forum

He said the varsity is overconfident of getting permission but they should remember that even for IDP they couldn’t and had to shut it down.