Some private Japanese universities have recently faced low student pass rates on the National Pharmacist Examination within the standard six-year pharmacy program. As a result, this study employed data on first- to third-year students’ academic performances to identify the students requiring learning support and apply a model Random Forest algorithm to predict whether the students would pass the National Pharmacist Examination. The average decrease in the Gini coefficient of the model using Grade Point Average (GPA) revealed that grades in the second semester of the third year were most significant for prediction. The receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (ROC_AUC) for the model using the GPA of first to third year of students enrolled in 2015 to predict the pass or fail rates of the National Pharmacist Examination for students enrolled in 2016 and 2017 was 0.86 and 0.75, respectively. Similarly, for the model employing specialized subject regular examination scores in the second semester of the third year, ROC_AUC was 0.80 and 0.74, respectively. The ROC_AUC of the model using specialized subject regular examination scores for the first semester of the second year was 0.69 and 0.67. These findings suggest that constructing a model to predict a pass or fail on the National Pharmacist Examination using GPA data from the first to third-year academic performance may help identify the students who require learning support early on in the program.

In recent years, the need to establish educational management at universities has been recognized. The most important part of the management of teaching and learning is the embodiment of learning goals through three policies: Diploma Policy (DP), Curriculum Policy (CP), and Admission Policy (AP). AP has two required aspects: the growth of students after admission on the basis of DP and CP, and the qualities and abilities that prospective students should possess. Furthermore, it is recommended that the AP is organized and presented in relation to “three elements of academic ability.” The Department of Pharmacy at Sojo University’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences reviewed the three policies from 2022 to 2023 and revised them in April 2024. The revision of our AP is based on the three pillars of qualities and abilities (“knowledge and skills,” “ability to think/make decisions/express oneself and so on,” and “ability geared toward learning/human nature”) to be cultivated in the new Courses of Study, which is related to “three elements of academic ability” and is familiar to high school students. In this paper, we report our new AP with DP and CP.

There were changes in the format of chemistry-related laboratory courses at Meijo University’s Faculty of Pharmacy from face-to-face lectures in 2019 to distance learning with on-demand video distribution in 2020. From 2021, online summary tests and skill and attitude evaluation lists were included to supplement distance learning. Additionally, face-to-face lectures were reintroduced to support experimental techniques in 2023. A program analysis examined the experimental methods of students in 2022 and 2023 and the effects of these initiatives at various evaluation points, revealing several differences between the two years. While the 2022 students achieved higher results in crude rutin yield, the 2023 students performed smoothly in recrystallization. It was considered appropriate to continue delivering remote and face-to-face lectures while addressing any new issues that may develop throughout the program.