During yesterday’s Faculty Senate meeting, associate clinical professor Mike Gonyeau presents information regarding the establishment of a Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences in the School of Pharmacy in the Bouvé College of Health Sciences. Photo by Mary Knox Merrill.

The Faculty Senate voted unanimously on Wednesday to approve a new bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences, a discipline that has been a particular strength in the Bouve College of Health Sciences’ School of Pharmacy.

The program would be relatively small, with just five to 10 undergraduates per class. One goal of the program is that it will help retain students at Northeastern who would otherwise leave the PharmD program to pursue degrees at other universities, said Mike Gonyeau, an associate clinical professor of pharmacy practice in the Bouvé College of Health Sciences.

Students who complete the program could also naturally continue on into the master’s and PhD programs in the School of Pharmacy and more broadly across the Bouvé.

“We clearly see this as an attractive point: to have a feeder to our own successful graduate programs,” said Mansoor Amiji, Distinguished Professor and chair of the pharmaceutical sciences department in the School of Pharmacy.

The program will have the same academic standards as the rest of Bouvé and Northeastern as a whole, said Norman Boisse, an associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences.

The University Curriculum Committee unanimously approved the new Bachelor of Science degree in December.