Pharmacology with Professional Placement
Entry requirements
A level
Typical offer: AAB in three A levels including Chemistry and one other science or mathematics subject. Contextual offer: ABB in three A levels including Chemistry and one other science or mathematics subject. Contextual offers are automatic - if you receive an offer and meet our eligibility criteria, you will receive the contextual offer instead of our typical or alternative offers. Alternative offer: ABB in three A levels including Chemistry and one other science or mathematics subject plus plus additional study - please see the course page on our website.
Access to HE Diploma
Typical offer: A pass in the Access to HE Diploma (in Science or Science and Engineering) with 33 credits achieved at Distinction in science or mathematics units plus 6 credits at Merit or above. This must include 15 credits from Chemistry units achieved at Distinction. We are able to consider Access to HE Diplomas in Science or Science and Engineering. Our Pharmacology course is academically challenging and requires solid foundations of knowledge in Chemistry. You will need to have studied Chemistry units worth at least 15 credits, including at least 3 credits of Organic Chemistry but excluding Biochemistry. Our Pharmacology course is academically challenging and requires solid foundations of knowledge in Chemistry. You will need to have studied Chemistry graded units worth at least 15 credits, including at least 3 graded units of Organic Chemistry but excluding Biochemistry and Chemistry in Society.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Typical offer: 36 points overall and 6, 6, 5 in three Higher Level subjects including Chemistry and a second science or mathematics course. Contextual offer: 35 points overall and 6, 5, 5 in three Higher Level subjects including Chemistry and a second science or mathematics course. We will accept either HL Mathematics course, and Sports, Exercise and Health Sciences as a second science or mathematics subject for this degree. Chemistry is required at Higher Level, we cannot accept Standard Level Chemistry for this course.
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Typical offer: DDD in the BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (RQF) in Applied Science PLUS grade A in A level Chemistry. We can only consider the above qualifications in Applied Science (excluding Physical Science), and you must be studying A level Chemistry alongside your BTEC qualification.
Scottish Advanced Higher
Typical offer: AB in two Advanced Highers including Chemistry and one other science or mathematics subject. You will typically be expected to have completed five Scottish Highers and we prefer applicants to have achieved at least AAABB in their Highers.
T Level
Typical offer: Distinction overall with grade A in the core component in a Science T Level PLUS grade A in A level Chemistry. You must be studying A level Chemistry alongside your T Level qualification. We can only accept a T Level technical qualification in Science. You must be studying the Laboratory Sciences specialism. We cannot consider a Healthcare Science T Level for this course.
UCAS Tariff
We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.
About this course
Train to play a vital role in the discovery, development and testing of therapeutic agents to improve global health.
If you love lab work and are interested in health and disease but don't want to work in a patient-facing role, then this could be the course for you. Pharmacologists aim to develop safe and effective therapeutic agents. They study the pathological changes that underpin the development of disease and investigate the effects of drugs on the body, including their location and mechanism of action.
On the course, you’ll gain an integrated view of drug action linked to disease-related functions of the major organ systems. You’ll enhance your understanding of the fundamental principles of chemistry, biology and the physical sciences, and learn to apply these principles to specific problems in drug discovery.
Pharmacology is a very practical subject, and you will develop an understanding of good experimental design, data acquisition and analysis and scientific communication.
Professional placement
As part of this course you’ll undertake a placement in a pharmaceutical company, research institute or university. You will also complete an extensive research project, giving you invaluable experience of working in the field.
Study pharmacology from day one
Unlike many universities that start with a general core science year, we teach pharmacology from the outset. This means you'll be confident going into your placement or research project, knowing you already have two years of specialist knowledge and practical experience under your belt.
Learn in specialist labs
As a highly practical course, you'll get to spend a lot of time in our dedicated pharmacology teaching labs, designed to reflect the practical settings found in industry.
You'll be trained in a wide range of traditional and molecular lab techniques across organic and analytical chemistry, pharmacology, molecular biology, microbiology and pharmaceutics.
Workshop sessions will familiarise you with databases and statistical packages to enable you to develop skills in information retrieval and data analysis.
Develop your professional skills
You are encouraged to become an undergraduate member of the British Pharmacological Society, and attend and present at the annual conference. You'll also have the chance to complete the Home Office Licence Training Course, to help you stand out when applying for placements and jobs. This involves training on the ethics, law and use of animals in research in line with the British Pharmacological Society's Curriculum for the Use of Research Animals.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
University of Bath
Pharmacy and Pharmacology
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.
Pharmacology
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.
Pharmacology
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
As only a relatively small number of students study pharmacology or toxicology, these statistics refer most closely to the graduate prospects of pharmacy graduates, so bear that in mind when you review them. Only a handful of students take first degrees in pure toxicology every year — the subject is more popular at Masters level. Pharmacology is a degree that tends to lead to jobs in the medical and pharmaceutical industries, and outcomes are improving again after a difficult time in the last few years. Jobs in pharmacology are often very specialist and so it’s no surprise that pharmacologists are amongst the most likely of all students to go on to a doctorate — if you want a job in research, start thinking about a PhD. As for pharmacy, unemployment rates are below 1% and 95% of pharmacy graduates had jobs as pharmacists (mostly in retail pharmacists) six months after they left their courses - employment rates have gone up significantly in the last couple of years.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Pharmacology
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
£38k
£42k
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.
Explore these similar courses...
This is what the university has told Ucas about the criteria they expect applicants to satisfy; some may be compulsory, others may be preferable.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
This is the percentage of applicants to this course who received an offer last year, through Ucas.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
Course location and department:
This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):
We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).
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.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
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.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
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.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
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
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
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?
Have a question about this info? Learn more here