Our pharmaceutical sciences course is grounded in core scientific disciplines, including molecular and cellular biology, organic, inorganic, and physical chemistry, as well as analytical sciences. As a future pharmaceutical scientist, you'll build a solid understanding of the science behind how medicines are discovered, developed, and manufactured.
As the course progresses, you'll explore key areas such as drug formulation and delivery, learning how medicines are designed to target specific systems in the body and how their physical and chemical properties influence their performance.
Pharmaceutical Scientists play a central role in the development and manufacture of safe, effective medicines, ensuring they meet strict quality standards and regulatory requirements. You'll gain insight into Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), quality control, and the regulatory frameworks that govern medicine production and distribution.
Laboratory skills are embedded throughout the course, with hands-on practical sessions included in nearly every module. You’ll be trained to conduct experiments, analyse results, and interpret scientific data accurately and confidently. The curriculum includes real world case studies and strong industrial links to help contextualise your learning and develop your problem solving and decision making abilities.
A unique feature of the course is Sunderland Therapeutics, a mock pharmaceutical company created to simulate professional industry scenarios. Furthermore, assessments are designed to reflect real world tasks, preparing you for a range of careers in the pharmaceutical industry and beyond.
By the time you graduate, you will have developed a strong scientific foundation and the practical, analytical, and regulatory knowledge essential for roles in pharmaceutical manufacturing, formulation science, quality assurance, regulatory affairs, and other areas across the wider pharmaceutical and life science industries.
This course is available in Clearing. If you have submitted an application, you can add this course. If you haven’t sent us an application yet, you can do this until 24th September 2026.
This is the equal consideration deadline. You can still apply after this date, but your application may not receive guaranteed consideration.
University of Sunderland has participated in the Teaching Excellence Framework. These ratings were awarded in 2023, for four years.
See why these ratings were awarded
What does this TEF outcome mean?
The following entry points are available for this course:
The Integrated Foundation Year is specially designed to support you where you have just missed the grades required for direct entry onto a three-year degree, or if you have relevant work experience and are now looking to broaden your subject knowledge but want more time to develop study skills before starting your degree.
Entry requirements are provided for guidance only and we may offer you an entrance interview which will help us determine your eligibility for your chosen degree. This enables us to consider making you an offer if you are perhaps a mature student who has been out of education for a period of time, or you have gained significant knowledge and skills through employment rather than traditional education.
Eligible entry qualifications:
** If you have studied for a GCSE which has a numerical grade then you will need to achieve a grade 4 or above. Equivalent alternative qualifications are also accepted, such as Level 2 Key Skills in Communication and Application of Number. If you have not achieved a grade C in Math's and English language, we may be able to work with you to ensure that you are able to gain these in the first year of the course, depending on your experience.
Find out more about qualification requirements for this course.
This section shows the range of grades that students who received offers were previously accepted on to this course with (learn more).
It is designed to support your research but does not guarantee whether you will or won't get a place.
Admissions teams consider various factors, including interviews, subject requirements, and entrance tests. Check all course entry requirements for eligibility.
We are unable to show previous accepted grades for this course. This could be because the course is new, it's a postgraduate course, there isn't enough historical data, or the provider has opted out of sharing their entry grades data for this course - learn more.
This report uses your grades to show how students with similar results have done when applying to this course in the past. Sometimes, there isn’t data for every possible set of grades. When that happens, universities and colleges occasionally fill in the gaps for sets of grades that are typically accepted.
Subject Spotlights give you the chance to try a higher education course before you apply. Delivered by the lecturers themselves you will gain insight into what it's like to study the course and give your personal statement a boost.
No fee information has been provided for this course
Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website.
Please refer to our website for course tuition fees - https://www.sunderland.ac.uk/
Email:student.helpline@sunderland.ac.uk
Phone:0191 515 3000
Email:student.helpline@sunderland.ac.uk
Phone:0191 515 3000
Edinburgh Building, City Campus
Chester Road
Sunderland
SR1 3SD
At University of Sunderland
