A new bachelor’s degree program in formulations and packaging science will start at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) in fall 2025.
The formulations aspect of the program would involve developing better products to address conditions associated with health disparities. For example, a better skin cream for people with diabetes or an insect repellent that smells better for use in communities where malaria is prevalent. Packaging science would be about the best way to design the delivery of these products to overcome challenges in reaching out to rural or marginalized communities.
The degree program was approved by the UNC System on May 22 and by the NCCU Board of Trustees at its June meeting.
Mohammad Ahmed, Ph.D., dean of the College of Health and Sciences, says that students who complete the BS program would gain skills and knowledge in such areas as:
- Clinical testing of products
- Product chemists and scientists
- Product manufacturing and development
- Quality control and assurance
- Packaging engineer and technologists
- Regulatory science
- Consumers affairs.
- Market analysis
- Basic procedures formulation and testing
The BS in formulations and packaging science would take a multidisciplinary approach, pulling in faculty from other departments to teach students how become an entrepreneur by teaching them principles of marketing and packaging, business, manufacturing courses, economics, clinical research, medical bioethics, toxicology, drug development and regulatory sciences.
There would also be an experiential component.
Top earners in such professions as pharmaceutical formulation scientists and packaging engineers and technologists could earn in excess of $120,000 per year, according the to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
