Background: Antimicrobial stewardship is currently not mandatory as part of the undergraduate training of pharmacists. Identifying gaps in knowledge and a better understanding of pharmacy students' perceptions about antimicrobial stewardship could assist in recommendations for appropriate changes to the pharmacy degree curricula that may lead to more appropriate use of antimicrobials, within the multidisciplinary team. Methods: A descriptive quantitative study with a survey design was conducted at the eight universities offering the pharmacy degree in South Africa. An electronic questionnaire with four main categories on antimicrobial stewardship was administered to final (fourth) year pharmacy students (June-August 2015). Results: An overall response rate of 26.6% (n = 260) was obtained from 978 students, despite a weekly reminder. Most of the respondents were familiar with antimicrobial stewardship programmes in South Africa (71.9%), and claimed to know what antimicrobial stewardship is (83.5%) with significant differences between the universities (p < 0.001). Only 37.7% of the respondents recalled having had formal training on antimicrobial stewardship, with responses from the eight universities differing significantly (p < 0.001). However, almost all respondents (98.5%) felt that a strong knowledge of antimicrobials was important for their future career, with 90.0% indicating that they would like more training on antimicrobial stewardship at undergraduate level. Conclusion: There were significant differences between the eight universities with regards to undergraduate education on antimicrobial stewardship. In order to help prevent antimicrobial resistance, efforts should be made to introduce concepts of antimicrobial stewardship into the undergraduate pharmacy curricula to promote better use of antimicrobials and prevent antimicrobial resistance.

Background: Antimicrobial stewardship is currently not mandatory as part of the undergraduate training of pharmacists. Identifying gaps in knowledge and a better understanding of pharmacy students’ perceptions about antimicrobial stewardship could assist in recommendations for appropriate changes to the pharmacy degree curricula that may lead to more appropriate use of antimicrobials, within the multi-disciplinary team.Methods: A descriptive quantitative study with a survey design was conducted at the eight universities offering the pharmacy degree in South Africa. An electronic questionnaire with four main categories on antimicrobial stewardship was administered to final (fourth) year pharmacy students (June–August 2015).Results: An overall response rate of 26.6% (n = 260) was obtained from 978 students, despite a weekly reminder. Most of the respondents were familiar with antimicrobial stewardship programmes in South Africa (71.9%), and claimed to know what antimicrobial stewardship is (83.5%) with significant differences between the universities (p 0.001). Only 37.7% of the respondents recalled having had formal training on antimicrobial stewardship, with responses from the eight universities differing significantly (p 0.001). However, almost all respondents (98.5%) felt that a strong knowledge of antimicrobials was important for their future career, with 90.0% indicating that they would like more training on antimicrobial stewardship at undergraduate level.Conclusion: There were significant differences between the eight universities with regards to undergraduate education on antimicrobial stewardship. In order to help prevent antimicrobial resistance, efforts should be made to introduce concepts of antimicrobial stewardship into the undergraduate pharmacy curricula to promote better use of antimicrobials and prevent antimicrobial resistance.