Course summary

Pharmacists are experts in the field of drugs and medicines, and many now prescribe medicines independently of a doctor. They may be involved in any aspect of drug/medicines preparation and use, from discovery to supply to the patient, while many have a role in optimising drug therapy. This means that once qualified as a pharmacist you have a wide choice of career options in hospitals and community practice, industry and research in the UK or elsewhere in the world. On this four-year programme you will learn about the discovery and development of new drugs; about their chemical, physicochemical, pharmacological and toxicological properties; you will study the clinical uses of medicines and the role of the pharmacist in relation to other healthcare professions. You will learn about the underlying pathophysiology of many human diseases, and how the use of medicines can halt, slow the progression of, or reverse disease processes. You will study in a thriving intellectual environment, alongside leading research laboratories, and a variety of postgraduate and professional courses in the pharmaceutical sciences and clinical pharmacy. Completion of the course will prepare you for post-graduate training to become a pharmacist or for other career avenues in health, science or education. The programme meets the requirements for accreditation by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and draws on the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) subject benchmark for pharmacy. The School, one of the long-established pharmacy schools in the UK, retains a strong and supportive 'family' atmosphere, and is based in its own Redwood Building, named after the first professor of pharmacy in the UK. Distinctive features You will learn in a research-led institution with academic staff rated highly for research in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014. Our academic staff have a broad range of experience and expertise, many of whom are pharmacists, and all of whom are involved in teaching. Within the course we also involve teacher-practitioners and visiting lecturers from community, hospital, primary care and industrial pharmacy and from pharmaceutical public health and the regulation of pharmacy. We have an active student society that arranges social, sporting and other events for its members. Alongside this, we also get regular student feedback within an Undergraduate Student Staff Panel. We provide full access to all resource centres in the University. Staff and students have excellent instruction and support from our subject librarians in the Bute library, who lead induction and skills-enhancement classes on accessing and citing published information. The School supports and encourages students to improve their information technology skills as well as their mentoring skills of more junior students or other pharmacy team members. In addition, we support engagement in the ‘life’ of the profession through participation in local pharmacy evening meetings or conferences of the British Pharmaceutical Students Association or the International Pharmaceutical Students Federation further afield. The School also fosters and promotes opportunities for ERASMUS international exchange visits of students and funded summer placements in its laboratories for undergraduates. Our final year MPharm students present their research project findings at a ‘School Research Poster Day’ and see the inclusion of project abstracts in a research abstract booklet.