Pursuing My Dreams to Netherlands

For me, being pharmacy student is not easy, after 4 years struggling in study, laboratory practice, assignments, and also final project, I really want to lead the right path in my life. After bachelor graduation, there are two things crossed my minds: continue my education in master degree or work in multinational company. Actually, I am not the brightest student in class, but I realize that I love learning; I like the passion when I can absorb information and knowledge through my nerves and keep in my mind. So I decide to pursue the next step of my education: Master Degree!

To continue master degree, I want to go overseas! That’s the dream. Study in Europe or US will be delightful, everybody knows that they have a great development in economy, technology, and education. I attended education fairs, collected the brochures, searched about universities in the internet. Then, my choice goes to: Netherlands!

Why?

Let’s talk about the growth of Pharmacy field there. The long history of the profession pharmacy in Netherlands has been filled with many important developmental issues. The profession developed from preparing drugs, dispensing medicinal products, to pharmaceutical care. The growth of pharmacy profession there is supported by high quality of education. They have a great path of education, not only learning but also research.

There are universities that offer pharmacy program. One of them is University of Groningen (RUG). They have a Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy (GRIP). What I like about this university is they provide a study environment that rewards vision, quality and achievement. The magister program is research oriented. The pharmacy study has a strong focus on the professional duty as a pharmacist, and also the curriculum contains compulsory research project of a half year in the master phase. Amazingly, they don’t draw the line in pharmacy field. Pharmacy has broad and integrated knowledge in drugs, chemistry, biology, health, and  community. According to that concept, RUG provide many research groups and research themes, such as in Biochemistry, Pharmaceutical Analysis, Pharmaceutical Biology, Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Pharmacotherapy and Pharmaceutical Care, and etc. Besides, the pharmacy study has a local collaboration with the University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG). That’s the things that Indonesia has not established yet.

University of Groningen (RUG)

Another famous university is Utrecht University. They offer The Drug Innovation Master’s program.  Without any border, the curriculum focuses on interdisciplinary research in the field of the innovation and usage of drugs, biological products (vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and gene therapeutics) and also diagnostics. They also provide programs that encompass health field, related with pharmacy, such as Epidemiology, Toxicology, Infection and Immunity, etc.

Besides the two universities, there are also Vrije Universiteit, Universiteit Maastricht, Universitas Erasmus Rotterdam, etc, which has its own eminency with various  programs of pharmacy and health.

What I am trying to say is. There are so many choices out there and they are really delightful. Netherlands is a country with borderless progress in knowledge and education. Last year, I applied pharmacy program to some universities there. I got the admission letter, but I haven’t gotten the scholarship yet. Evidently, there’s the third option for me besides continue my education in master degree or work in multinational company: I got married. I still keep the dream to study there. Wish me luck :D.