Pharmaceutical Sciences (with a Year in Industry)

Learn about the discovery and design of medicines on a course that equips you with the scientific depth, practical skills and interdisciplinary mindset needed to shape the future of healthcare.

On this course, you’ll study the core science of drug discovery, the formulation of medicines and the diseases for which they are designed – developing your understanding of how drugs and medicines work and why they’re used. You’ll also explore current and potential future advancements in the field, as well as pharmaceutical regulations and business aspects of drug discovery.

You’ll also spend a year in industry, working in an area related to pharmaceutical science. This year will provide you with invaluable, hands-on experience in a professional environment – helping you stand out to future employers.

We’ll prepare you for a career where you can develop new drugs and medicines to transform people’s lives – whether that’s in industry or academia.

Throughout your first two years, you’ll bring together the core sciences that make up pharmaceutical sciences – chemistry, pharmaceutics and biosciences.

Chemistry will help you to learn about:

• drug design and discovery using organic chemistry

• using analytical techniques and physical chemistry to determine the purity and properties of drugs and medicines

Pharmaceutics will cover the science of designing and formulating medicines.

While Biosciences includes:

• understanding disease and drug action through biology and pharmacology

• the design of complex biological drugs

In your third year, we’ll focus on current and possible future advances in drug discovery and pharmaceutical innovation – ensuring you keep up to date with cutting-edge developments in the field. You’ll also learn about pharmaceutical processes, intellectual property, licensing and regulatory affairs in a national and global context. This means you’ll build not only your scientific knowledge but also your understanding of the pharmaceutical industry.

Increasingly, you’ll be able to focus on areas of pharmaceutical science that match your interests and career ambitions. You’ll complete your own research project, preparing you for your final year. You’ll put all the knowledge you’ve gained into practice, working on an extended research project in the pharmaceutical, biotech or health and consumer industries.

Throughout your studies, our dedicated Faculty of Science careers will be on hand to support you. Our previous graduates have gone on to work for top employers such as AstraZeneca, GSK, Pfizer, Nutrivitality, Merck Group and Pharmaron.

Why choose this course?
Course highlights

• Complete an integrated master’s degree and carry out a research project in industry in your final year

• Gain extensive, practical lab experience throughout the course

• Learn from our active research staff, who can share with expertise and the latest research developments with you
  
  Proven Results

• We’re ranked 12th in the world and 5th in the UK for pharmacy and pharmacology (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025).

• The average starting salary for pharmaceutical sciences undergraduates within 15 months of graduation was £31,126 (HESA Graduate Outcomes 2021/22-2022/23).

Course Modules

For detailed information about the modules you will study, please visit the course page

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studywithus/ugstudy/courses/UG/Pharmaceutical-Sciences-with-a-Year-in-Industry-MSci-Hons.html

For detailed information about the course assessment methods please visit the course page: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studywithus/ugstudy/courses/UG/Pharmaceutical-Sciences-with-a-Year-in-Industry-MSci-Hons.html