Welcome!
Welcome to the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s, whether you are returning to us after the summer break or you are a new student just beginning your university career. The QUB School of Pharmacy is one of the leading schools in the UK and Ireland, as ranked by the ‘Times’ and other leading university league tables. The School provides excellence in education and the MPharm degree is fully accredited by the Pharmaceutical Society of NI and the General Pharmaceutical Council (of Great Britain), the UK regulatory bodies for the profession of Pharmacy. Look around the School and you will see that we have some of the most up-to-date teaching and research facilities of any pharmacy school in the UK and Ireland.
Our teaching is provided by academic staff who are active in research and scholarship, pushing forward the boundaries of knowledge in pharmacy and the pharmaceutical sciences to provide you with a high quality educational experience in preparation for your chosen career. The School achieved an outstanding result in the most recent UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), which grades the quality of university research in all subjects - 55% of our research activities were rated in the two leading categories of ‘world-leading’ and ‘internationally excellent’. In fact, 95% of our research was classed as being of ‘international quality’, placing us firmly in the elite group of research-intensive UK pharmacy schools.
Most of our students will choose careers in community, clinical or hospital pharmacy. We are committed to providing you with the best possible education and training in these key subjects, supported by the essential knowledge and confidence in your chosen branch of pharmacy that comes from a sound understanding of the pharmaceutical sciences. Innovations in the MPharm programme include a module on ‘Pharmacist Prescribing’ to equip you with many of the skills and competencies necessary to embrace this new aspect of professional practice, and new modules that will help you to integrate theory with practice. Complementing these developments, we have an innovative programme of student clinical placements in several hospitals across Northern Ireland. This major initiative, supported by the DHSSPS, allows students to progress through a pathway of clinical experience development from Level 1 right up to Level 4, with considerable periods being spent in hospitals under the guidance of skilled clinical pharmacists.
The School of Pharmacy at Queen’s now has close to 600 undergraduate students and around 100 postgraduate students. Our dedicated team comprises academic, clerical and technical staff, all playing a vital role in delivering an educational experience that we hope you find to be worthwhile and also enjoyable … at least, most of the time!
The MPharm degree is a four-year programme. If you're just starting out, this may seem a long time to spend in studying for your chosen profession. However, that time will pass quickly, and you will soon find yourself at our graduation ceremony receiving your degree certificate. Please remember, though, that you will reach that point only through hard work and a disciplined application to your studies. But you'll have some fun along the way and we're sure you will enjoy the ‘Queen’s Experience’.