A Foundation for Every Graduate
We invested in training our faculty in Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), a methodology that brings global perspective into the classroom without requiring a passport. Every second-year student now spends six weeks working alongside pharmacy students at Cardiff University in Wales, comparing the US and Welsh healthcare systems and the differing roles pharmacists play in each. Notably, Welsh pharmacists hold independent prescriptive authority, a striking contrast for our students to grapple with. We are currently developing a second COIL partnership with Monash University Malaysia for third-year students. Once complete, every graduate will be exposed to two other healthcare systems before they ever leave our program.
Deeper Opportunities for Students Who Want More
For students ready to go further, we offer faculty-led study abroad courses during January term and summer, currently running in Greece, Central/South America, the Middle East, and Northern Ireland. We have also secured international elective rotations for fourth-year students in innovative community pharmacy settings in Wales, Malaysia, and New Zealand. Including an association management rotation with the national pharmacy association of Portugal.
Faculty-led Courses
Faculty-led courses are 2-weeks long and currently led by professors Dr. Melissa Hunter and Dr. Jessica Richards.
Pharmacy in Greece
Pharmacy in Peru
Why This Matters
We believe this international exposure builds something that cannot be taught from a textbook: empathy. Navigating an unfamiliar country, where the language and customs are just different enough to be disorienting, is not so different from what a patient feels encountering the U.S. healthcare system for the first time. Our students learn that discomfort firsthand, and it changes how they practice.
These experiences also sharpen problem-solving skills and build confidence, the very qualities we set out to strengthen. Graduates carry that confidence into their careers, using it to improve processes and solve problems within the organizations that employ them.
International Rotations
While students complete their P4 rotations, they have the opportunity to participate in one of the rotations abroad.
Pharmacy in Wales
Located in Wales
Pharmacy in Portugal
Located in Portugal
Pharmacy in New Zealand
Located in New Zealand
The Results Speak for Themselves
Our graduates consistently tell us that their international experiences gave them an edge in job and residency interviews. Most have secured their first-choice position or residency, and every one of them reported that their international work came up as a talking point in those interviews.
This is not a peripheral enrichment activity. It is a deliberate, structured investment in producing pharmacists who are more empathetic, more resilient, and better prepared to lead, and it is already paying dividends for our students' career.
The University of Wyoming has earned its Research Level 1 (R1) status from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, placing Wyoming's only four-year university with the top research universities in the United States.