Course summary

Chemistry is central to solving humanity's most pressing problems - climate change, renewable energy, sustainable materials, and eliminating hunger and disease. Our chemistry degrees help develop the practical, analytical, numerical, and logical reasoning skills you need to help solve these global challenges – and also offers an exciting route into a wide range of future career paths. In this course, you can satisfy your curiosity for medicinal chemistry with tailored modules later in the course, providing insights into the drug discovery and pharmaceutical pipeline. This course is accredited by the Royal Society of Chemistry, subject to passing required modules. Through Chemistry we can tackle the energy crisis, discover new medicines or develop new materials for 21st century needs, from polymers for drug delivery to more efficient batteries. Our flexible undergraduate Chemistry degree is delivered by one of the UK's top Chemistry departments, which is ranked highly for both teaching and research. It provides a comprehensive programme of study to prepare you for a lab-based scientific career – but also helps build the practical, numeracy, logical and analytical skills that are valued by top graduate recruiters. Years One and Two will set you up with a solid foundation in state-of-the-art Chemistry. Here, you will build the experimental skills and theoretical knowledge across the core branches of modern Chemistry, and learn how chemical scientists understand and shape the material world around us. By branching into Medicinal Chemistry you will apply your chemical knowledge to the discovery, design and synthesis of new drugs for clinical use. This degree provides a solid foundation in Chemistry coupled with specialist knowledge in advanced medicinal chemistry/biochemistry. Specialist modules will explore the process of medicinal drug discovery, starting from the initial concept of a new product, to the discovery stage, clinical trials, scale-up, and production. You can explore the biochemistry of these processes, and how this leads to medical breakthroughs. In addition to research-led teaching from top academics in their field, you will benefit from external lectures given by pharmaceutical industry leaders. We offer the distinctive opportunity to transfer across degree programmes, dependent on good academic progress, to include study abroad or industrial placements in the UK and beyond.