Chemistry and Physics
Keele University
UCAS Code: FF13 | Bachelor of Science (with Honours) - BSc (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
BBB in three A levels including B in Chemistry and B in Maths or Physics
Access to HE Diploma
122 UCAS points in an Access to HE Diploma with Chemistry and Physics or Maths related content, including Distinction in at least 30 Level 3 credits. Please contact the University Admissions Team for advice on whether your chosen course would qualify.
GCSE/National 4/National 5
You will also need: 4 / C in GCSE Maths or Level 2 Functional Skills Maths, plus an English language qualification
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
555 in three Higher Levels including 5 in Chemistry and 5 in Maths (any) or Physics, OR 30 points including 5 in Chemistry and 5 in Maths (any) or Physics
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
DDM in any of the following BTEC Extended Diplomas / National Extended Diplomas: Applied Science, including completion of three out of four of the following units: Applications of Organic Chemistry, Applications of Inorganic Chemistry, Industrial Chemical Analysis, Practical Chemical Analysis
T Level
Merit in any of the following T levels: Science, with specialism in Laboratory Sciences
UCAS Tariff
We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.
About this course
This course has alternative study modes. Contact the university to find out how the information below might vary.
Develop solutions to society's global challenges and help make a difference to the world. Challenge your imagination and gain insight into how the world works. From saving habitats, improving technology and contributing to medical advances, to discovering sustainable energy sources to medical diagnostic techniques the applications of chemistry and physics are endless.
**Why choose this course?**
- Professional accreditation pathways are available
- 13th in England for Physics (Guardian University League Table, 2022)
- Use a wide variety of research-grade experimental chemistry equipment in Keele's state-of-the-art Central Science Laboratories
- Engage with award-winning academics who are known nationally for their innovation in teaching
- Enhance your employability with our work placement year in chemistry
From the technology we use to how we treat illness, chemistry is essential to our modern life and offers a wide variety of career opportunities in many fields from pharmaceuticals and food technology to forensics and teaching. You will develop the skills to enable you to become a professional chemist building a strong grounding in core chemistry knowledge. You will examine the political, social and economic impacts and explore topics such as nuclear chemistry and energy, geochemistry, health and toxicology and green chemistry. You will study more in depth spectroscopic techniques for analytical and physical chemistry, as well as named reactions for chemical synthesis. This is embedded in your practical sessions, during which you will learn advanced experimental techniques including handling air-sensitive reagents.
Physics helps us to identify the connections between seemingly different phenomena. It provides the quantitative and analytic skills needed for analysing data and solving problems and makes an enormous contribution to a range of industries such as power, nuclear, electronics, IT, and data-mining. This combined honours Physics programme meets the standards required for accreditation by the Institute of Physics. Our programme will provide you with a solid grounding in the underpinning theory, including mathematics, of Chemistry and Physics and plenty of hands-on practical experience in Keele's state-of-the-art laboratories
**About Keele**
Keele University was established in 1949 by the former Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. Founded to meet the needs of a changing world, Keele has always had a pioneering vision to be a different kind of university.
We excel in both teaching and research, with some of the most satisfied students in England, and research that is changing lives for the better at a regional, national and global level.
Our beautiful 600-acre campus is one of the biggest in Britain – but all the most important services and facilities are on your doorstep, with accommodation, teaching spaces, facilities including a medical centre, sports centre and pharmacy, and a range of shops, eateries and entertainment venues – including the Students’ Union – clustered around the centre.
Modules
For a list of indicative modules please visit the course page on the Keele University website.
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Chemistry
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
Physics
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Chemistry
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
Chemistry graduates are in demand from a wide range of industries, from the food, oil, chemicals and pharmaceuticals to consultancy, technical analysis and teaching. They're also prized by business and finance employers for their research and data handling skills — anywhere there is research and data to be explained, you can find chemistry grads. If you want a career in research, you need a doctorate, so start planning now if you fancy one of these exciting and challenging jobs - but good students can usually get grants to take a doctorate, so don't worry about the financing if you think you have what it takes. The recession wasn’t too kind to chemists, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry (one of the key employers for chemists), but things are getting back to normal for this flexible group and it's one of the few degrees that is bucking the current trend and increasing graduate numbers.
Physics
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
Although the subject has seen a bit of resurgence in recent years, the UK is still felt to be short of physics graduates, and in particular physicists training as teachers. If you want a career in physics research — in all sorts of areas, from atmospheric physics to lasers - you'll probably need to take a doctorate, and so have a think about where you would like to do that and how you might fund it (the government funds many physics doctorates, so you might not find it as hard as you think). With that in mind, it's not surprising that just over a fifth of physics graduates go on to take doctorates when they finish their degree, and well over a third of physicists take some kind of postgraduate study in total. Physics is highly regarded and surprisingly versatile, which is why physics graduates who decide not to stay in education are more likely to go into well-paid jobs in the finance industry than they are to go into science. The demand and versatility of physics degrees goes to explain why they're amongst the best-paid science graduates.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Chemistry
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£21k
£24k
£30k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
Physics
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£28k
£27k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.
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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.
You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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