Medway School of Pharmacy

Become the point of contact for patients for the safe and effective use of medicines. Our four-year Pharmacy programme prepares you for a successful career as a pharmacist in community or hospital settings.

2024

See 2025 entry

Overview
Course structure
Teaching and assessment
Careers
Entry requirements
Fees and funding

Overview

Hosted at the Medway School of Pharmacy, our fully accredited programme is based on three interlinked themes: practitioner and patient; medicines design and manufacture; the patient; and disease and drug action. Our curriculum is outcomes-focused and designed to prepare you for your future professional practice. You study basic and applied science as well as clinical and professional practice, all in the context of patient care. You will also undertake external placements throughout your course, so that by the time you graduate you have the skills and the confidence to kickstart your career.

Course structure

The following modules are indicative of those offered on this programme. This listing is based on the current curriculum and may change year to year in response to new curriculum developments and innovation.

Stage 1

Compulsory modules currently include

Professional Practice & Prescribing 1 (40 credits)
The Science of Medicines (40 credits)
Biomedical Sciences & Therapeutics (40 credits)
Patient Safety & Quality Competencies (0 credits)

Stage 2

Compulsory modules currently include

Professional Practice & Prescribing 2 (40 credits)
The Science of Medicines 2 (40 credits)
Biomedical Sciences & Therapeutics 2 (40 credits)
Patient Safety & Quality Competencies 2 (0 credits)

Stage 3

Compulsory modules currently include

Professional Practice & Prescribing 3 (40 credits)
The Science of Medicines 3 (40 credits)
Biomedical Sciences & Therapeutics 3 (40 credits)
Patient Safety & Quality Competencies 3 (0 credits)

Stage 4

Compulsory modules currently include

Prescribing Scope of Practice (40 credits)
Research Project (40 credits)
Quality Use of Medicines (40 credits)
Patient Safety & Quality Competencies 4 (0 credits)

Please contact the Medway School of Pharmacy for information about the course structure.

Teaching & Assessment

The MPharm programme is centred around three main themes; the medicine, the patient and the professional. These aspects come together and are integrated through demonstrating patient care around integrated cases. We have a strong focus on developing professional actualisation and working with other health and care professionals as part of a multidisciplinary team working around, and improving the care of, patients and the public. The importance of learning from and about a range of health and care is developed through the programme.

A range of teaching methods will be used from traditional lectures and video recordings, seminars, tutorials, laboratory sessions, practical's, online work, reading, independent study, reflecting on assignment feedback and practice-based learning.

This will be delivered in person, online (using computer aided learning) and via patient-simulation with our standardised patients. This is supported by developing our high fidelity simulations enabling the provision of a realistic and safe environment supporting the development of knowledge and skills.

Application and demonstration of knowledge and skills through teaching and learning is critical to embedding learning. The placement in the workplace further builds on this and contextualises practice whilst also building links with a range of health and care professionals.

Assessment

A range of different assessment types will be utilised, from written examinations, multiple choice question tests, coursework (for example laboratory assessments, professional and therapeutic decision making), oral presentations, poster presentations, clinical simulation activities with standardised patients, patient safety competences (including pharmaceutical calculations, dispensing and portfolio activities) and production of a research paper.

Contact Hours

For a student studying full time, each academic year of the programme will comprise 1200 learning hours which include both direct contact hours and private study hours. The precise breakdown of hours will be subject dependent and will vary according to modules.

Methods of assessment will vary according to subject specialism and individual modules.

Please refer to the individual module details under Course Structure.

Entry requirements

Home/EU students

The University will consider applications from students holding a wide range of qualifications. All applications are assessed on an individual basis but some of our typical requirements are listed below.

Qualification	Typical offer/minimum requirement
A level	ABB including Chemistry grade B plus another science subject
GCSE	Mathematics and English at grade B/5 or above
Access to HE Diploma	The University will not consider applicants holding Access to HE Diplomas.
BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma (formerly BTEC National Diploma)	DDD
International Baccalaureate	32 points overall or 15 points at HL including HL Chemistry at 5 and one other HL science-based subject at 5

International students

If you are an international student, visit our International Student website for further information about entry requirements for your country. For details about the International Foundation Year and International Year Zero, please visit our International College website. Please note that international fee-paying students who require a Student visa cannot undertake a part-time programme due to visa restrictions.

Please note that meeting the typical offer/minimum requirement does not guarantee that you will receive an offer.

English Language Requirements

This course requires an Excellent level of English language, equivalent to C1 on CEFR.

Details on how to meet this requirement can be found on our English Language requirements webpage.

Examples:

IELTS 7.0 with a minimum of 7.0 in each component

GCSE Grade 4/C or above in English Language

IB Standard Level Grade 5 or above in English A: Language and Literature

A Level Grade C or above in English Language or English Literature

General entry requirements

Please also see our general entry requirements.

Careers

Graduate destinations

Our graduates are qualified to work in all branches of the profession such as:

hospitals
the NHS
pharmacies
primary care
industry
the armed services
prison services
academia.

Help finding a job

The University has a friendly Careers and Employability Service, which can give you advice on how to:

apply for jobs
write a good CV
perform well in interviews.

Work experience

Throughout the programme, you complete a number of external placements in hospitals and community pharmacies.

In your first year, you spend one and a half days in a community pharmacy. You then spend three days in hospital and one week in a community pharmacy during your second year of study. In Year 3, you go out to a hospital and a community pharmacy for one week each. A self-arranged two-week placement in a community pharmacy, hospital, GP surgery or industry is part of your final year of study.

Career-enhancing skills

Our graduates develop substantial transferable skills that are valued in a range of work environments.

These skills include:

communication
organisational and research skills
writing reports
performing laboratory work
working effectively and considerately in teams.

You can also gain extra skills by signing up for our Kent Extra activities, such as learning a language or volunteering.

Professional recognition

You are required to complete a pre-registration year in practice and pass a registration exam before you can become a registered pharmacist in Great Britain. This is a separate programme for which you need to apply and a place on the programme is not guaranteed.

The programme has full accreditation from the General Pharmaceutical Council.

Fees

The 2024/25 annual tuition fees for this course are:

Home full-time £9250
EU full-time £22700
International full-time £22700

For details of when and how to pay fees and charges, please see our Student Finance Guide.

For students continuing on this programme, fees will increase year on year by no more than RPI + 3% in each academic year of study except where regulated.*

Your fee status

The University will assess your fee status as part of the application process. If you are uncertain about your fee status you may wish to seek advice from UKCISA before applying.

For students continuing on this programme, fees will increase year on year by no more than RPI + 3% in each academic year of study except where regulated.*

Your fee status

The University will assess your fee status as part of the application process. If you are uncertain about your fee status you may wish to seek advice from UKCISA before applying.

Additional costs

New students are subject to a number of small mandatory costs at the start of their course of around £100 in total.

Students on the MPharm programme must complete the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check as part of the fitness to practise and admission process. This is currently charged at £53.
We ask that all students purchase lab coats, safety glasses and a notebook at a cost price of £18.

Find out more about accommodation and living costs, plus general additional costs that you may pay when studying at Kent.

Funding

Kent offers generous financial support schemes to assist eligible undergraduate students during their studies. See our funding page for more details.

Start date
- September
Duration
- 4 years full-time
Accreditation
- General Pharmaceutical Council

The University of Kent makes every effort to ensure that the information contained in its publicity materials is fair and accurate and to provide educational services as described. However, the courses, services and other matters may be subject to change. For more information please read our terms and conditions.

*Where fees are regulated (such as by the Department for Education or Research Council UK) permitted increases are normally inflationary and the University therefore reserves the right to increase tuition fees by inflation (RPI excluding mortgage interest payments) as permitted by law or Government policy in the second and subsequent years of your course. If we intend to exercise this right to increase tuition fees, we will let you know by the end of June in the academic year before the one in which we intend to exercise that right.

If, in the future, the increases to regulated fees permitted by law or government policy exceed the rate of inflation, we reserve the right to increase fees to the maximum permitted level. If we intend to exercise this extended right to increase tuition fees, we will let you know by the end of June in the academic year before the one in which we intend to exercise that right.