Pharmacy
A pharmacy MPharm is a one of the requirements to become a fully qualified pharmacist. In addition, you will need to work for a year in a community or hospital pharmacy and pass a registration exam.
The MSci Pharmaceutical Sciences course prepares students for broader pharmaceutical science roles, often within a lab environment.
What skills will I gain during my degree?
In addition to your subject knowledge, the degree equips you with key employability skills such as:
- critical judgement
- problem-solving and analytical skills
- communication skills
- time management and organisational abilities
- interpersonal skills
- able to empathise with patients
- able to establish relationships with patients and other professional colleagues
What have pharmacy graduates gone on to do?
96.3% of graduates* leaving pharmacy courses in the 2018/19 academic year secured work or further study within 15 months of graduating.
The graduate labour market remains buoyant for pharmacy graduates. However, it is likely there will be greater competition for pre-registration training places, as a result of the increase in output of graduates from newly established pharmacy degrees.
Our pharmacy graduates secure professional positions largely within the human health sector, as hospital pharmacists, or the retail sector as community pharmacists.
Some MPharm and MSci graduates choose to pursue careers in the private sector with pharmaceutical companies.
*UK full-time first-degree graduates seeking employment or further study
How do I apply for pharmacy roles?
Health Education England (HEE) introduced a centralised recruitment and selection process for preregistration pharmacist posts utilising the IT system Oriel.
It applies to all hospital preregistration pharmacist posts and is optional for community pharmacy preregistration posts.
Through Oriel only one application will be required and applicants can preference multiply preregistration pharmacists posts in both hospital and community posts.
National Recruitment Scheme
Once you have qualified - most newly qualified pharmacists enter the job market between July and August and many employers will target their recruitment to coincide with this. You will need to start your job search before you have finished your pre-reg training.
Pharmacist Support - Looking for work
Alternative career options with a pharmacy degree
Being a pharmacist isn’t the only option if you have a pharmacy degree. For information about alternative careers with your degree visit what you can do with a pharmacy degree as well as our pages on:
Some local science-related companies include Quotient, Source Bioscience, Sygnature Discovery, as well a range of other companies in the BioCity Nottingham science park.
If you want to look at more general options, visit our Career paths pages for information about different graduate roles.
If you would like to discuss options outside pharmacy you can book an appointment with an adviser. This can be done by logging into MyCareer.
Explore more...
For information about careers in the pharmaceutical sector about drug discovery and design, see our page