Course summary

Build your appreciation of the chemical sciences and the drug development process on this five-year course. Incorporating a year in industry, this course will prepare you for a career in the pharmaceutical and related industries, or in biomedical research. You'll develop an interconnected understanding of core chemistry topics, and deepen your knowledge of inorganic, organic, physical, analytical, synthetic and computational chemistry. You'll also focus on the identification, development and production of new drugs. Extensive laboratory-based work will help develop your practical skills. You'll learn to synthesise chemicals and study chemical systems and build expertise in experimental measurements and computational models. As the course develops, you'll study strategies for targeting diseases and work with complex portfolios of data. This includes opportunities to specialise across a series of advanced topics in your third and fourth year. Part of your studies will see you analyse emergent ‘industry 4.0’ approaches and technologies such as rapid prototyping, biohacking and machine learning. Your fourth year is spent in industry. During this period, you'll place chemistry in an industrial context on an extended placement with a leading industrial partner. Previous placement partners have included GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Pfizer. Your study reaches Master's level in your final year, where your work will culminate with a substantial research project. Teaching is primarily delivered at our South Kensington campus, as well as the state-of-the-art Molecular Sciences Research Hub in White City. Years one and two of our Chemistry degrees follow the same core course content, supplemented by optional modules designed to match your chosen course of study. This structure offers you the opportunity to transfer between Chemistry degrees at a later stage providing you have studied the appropriate optional subjects, and as such you should apply to only one degree within the Department of Chemistry. You may need to meet a certain academic standard to be eligible for placements in industry or abroad. If you are an international student, transferring to a different course could have an impact on your visa, but our International Student Support Team are here to help advise and support you. Professional accreditation This degree leads to a Master’s level qualification and is professionally accredited by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). This accreditation is internationally respected in an increasingly global industry and graduate market. It will allow you to demonstrate that you’ve completed a high-quality degree programme designed to meet the needs of both students and their future employers. This MSci degree fully satisfies the academic requirements for professional registration as a Chartered Chemist (CChem). Becoming a Chartered Chemist earns you an internationally recognised qualification which can enhance your career prospects and earning potential