School of Pharmacy and Chemistry

Department of Pharmacy

Welcome
The School of Pharmacy and Chemistry has a high reputation for the quality of its undergraduate and postgraduate science courses in Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Science, and Chemistry. The courses offered include full-time and part-time programmes for foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses.  Here are just a few of the reasons why you should consider studying for a degree course in the School:

• Kingston is long established as a top teaching university
• Your course is supported by excellent facilities in new
  purpose-built laboratories, equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation
• Strong school links with key sectors including for Pharmacy the hospital and community pharmacy sectors and also in industry (including the optional sandwich year for courses other than MPharm) which ensure you are well prepared for today's employment market
• The modular course structure offers a range of options,
  allowing you to specialise in areas of particular interest to you
• You will be taught by highly qualified, friendly,
  and enthusiastic staff and a 'student support officer' can provide help and advice

There are over 30 full-time academic staff with wide ranging educational, research and industrial expertise, particularly in pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmacy practice, physiology and pharmacology, pharmaceutical technology and forensic and analytical science. There is a healthy balance of experienced and new younger staff with flourishing research interests. This dynamic academic environment fosters an enthusiasm for learning and supports excellence.

Undergraduate honours degrees

The new Master of Pharmacy programme was established in 2004. Pharmacy is a science-based profession which ensures high standards of supervision of the use of medicines in the clinical treatment and prevention of disease. The Kingston MPharm Course provides extensive and integrated teaching on the natural origins and/or rational design of drugs, the formulation of drugs into medicines, drug actions (wanted and unwanted) on the body, and medicines management in patients. The MPharm course is jointly taught with the medical school of St.George’s, University of London.

There is also a Foundation Degree in Pharmaceutical and Chemical Sciences, which allows a choice of routes in Year 2, for those who wish to go on to further study either in Pharmacy, Chemistry or the Pharmaceutical sciences. This foundation degree has been accredited by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain to allow direct entry into year 2 of the MPharm Pharmacy programme, subject to study of the appropriate option modules and level of academic attainment.

Kingston's Pharmaceutical Science degrees (MPharmSci(Hons) and BSc(Hons)) offer a comprehensive coverage of the areas of chemistry and biology which underpin research in the pharmaceutical industry. The modules at Levels 2 and 3 cover more specialised topics such as computer-aided drug design, pharmaceutical analysis and aspects of law, ethics and marketing relating to drugs. A major feature of Level 3 is a project involving novel research in a chosen area of pharmaceutical science.

Postgraduate degrees
Here are just a few of the reasons why you should consider studying for a postgraduate degree course in the School of Pharmacy and Chemistry. Graduates:

• are provided with a knowledge, and skills base, which will allow them to pursue careers in analytical, pharmaceutical or forensic sciences in a variety of industries or the public sector.
• will develop key problem-solving skills in preparation for their careers or further research.
• are trained to implement good measurement, scientific practice, operate advanced analytical equipment in a safe and effective manner and demonstrate skills in the evaluation and interpretation of laboratory data.
• are also provided with industrially or professionally relevant courses in which they can easily relate their current work and/or experience to their studies to benefit both.
• are offered flexible programmes of study, which suit their needs in employment and the companies that employ them.
• are offered the opportunity to undertake an independent research project, with access to state of the art instrumentation.

In recent years the postgraduate degree programmes (MSc, PgDip and PgCert) in the School have shown remarkable growth in student numbers due to the high teaching quality and the support of friendly and enthusiastic staff.
The research ethos of the school is reflected both in the taught modules and in the research project. There is scope to study and explore recent trends in analytical, pharmaceutical and forensic sciences and the latest analytical technologies.

Within the laboratories we have invested in new equipment including spectrometers and chromatographs for the pharmaceutical sciences, with additional impressive instrumentation to support analytical and forensic postgraduate programmes. Kingston hosts the national NERC-funded ICP-MS laboratory. Research students have their own new work areas and dedicated laboratories.

Our strong links with industry and key sectors ensures the relevance of the courses to the employment market. Industrial links are further strengthened by project placements where students have the opportunity to undertake their project in industry. Currently students are placed in the pharmaceutical industry, forensic laboratories, analytical consultancies, hospital laboratories and research laboratories.