Expand+Deadlines for on-time applications

2023 entry application deadlines

For courses starting in 2023 (and for deferred applications), your application should be with us at UCAS by one of these dates – depending on what courses you apply for. If y...

Hide-Deadlines for on-time applications

2023 entry application deadlines

For courses starting in 2023 (and for deferred applications), your application should be with us at UCAS by one of these dates – depending on what courses you apply for. If your completed application – including all your personal details and your academic reference – is submitted by the deadline, it is guaranteed to be considered.

15 October 2022 for 2023 entry at 18:00 (UK time) – any course at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, or for most courses in medicine, veterinary medicine/science, and dentistry. You can add choices with a different deadline later, but don’t forget you can only have five choices in total.

25 January 2023 for 2023 entry at 18:00 (UK time) – for the majority of courses.

Some course providers require additional admissions tests to be taken alongside the UCAS application, and these may have a deadline. Find out more about these tests.

Check course information in the search tool to see which deadline applies to you at the application weblink below.

Apply as soon as possible: Student funding arrangements mean that as offers are made and places fill up, some courses may only have vacancies for students from certain locations. It’s therefore really important that you apply for your chosen courses by the appropriate deadlines mentioned above, as not all courses will have places for all students.

Start date: September 2023.

Expand+Irish Leaving Certificate
136 UCAS tariff points to include a minimum of five subjects (four of which must be at Higher Level) to include English at H6 if studied at Higher Level or O4 if studied at Ordinary Level.

ILC Essential Subject Requireme...

Hide-Irish Leaving Certificate
136 UCAS tariff points to include a minimum of five subjects (four of which must be at Higher Level) to include English at H6 if studied at Higher Level or O4 if studied at Ordinary Level.

ILC Essential Subject Requirements:
H2 in Chemistry and one subject from Biology, Maths, Physics or Agricultural Science. If Mathematics is not passed at H2, you will be required to achieve a minimum of H6 if studied at Higher level or O4 if studied at Ordinary Level in addition to Chemistry and one of the subjects above.

Expand+Overview
The MPharm programme at Ulster will provide you with an academically challenging and vocationally relevant pharmacy education and training.

Summary
The aim of the MPharm course at Ulster is to educate pharmacy students to a high standar...

Hide-Overview
The MPharm programme at Ulster will provide you with an academically challenging and vocationally relevant pharmacy education and training.

Summary
The aim of the MPharm course at Ulster is to educate pharmacy students to a high standard in an environment of modern clinical relevance, thereby facilitating their immediate integration into a forward thinking, healthcare-based profession that practises clinical excellence and understands fully the pharmaceutical principles underpinning therapeutic application of drug substances. The MPharm programme is designed to provide academically challenging and vocationally relevant pharmacy education and training underpinned by appropriate science elements (pharmaceutical sciences) and appropriate professional practice skills (pharmacy practice and patient care).

The MPharm programme offers a modern, innovative, and integrated Masters degree level education in Pharmacy that meets the standards of the University and the requirements of the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI). The MPharm programme will provide students with the knowledge, understanding, skills and appropriate training required for them to be responsible for the manufacture, safe, legal and professional control, distribution and use of medicinal products. This programme also incorporates detailed studies of all aspects of drug action, design, formulation and use.

About this course
The MPharm course at Ulster University, Coleraine is delivered from the Saad Centre for Pharmacy and Diabetes, by the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Specialised teaching laboratories, seminar rooms, a facsimile of a pharmacy shop, a computer suite, a drug information suite, store areas and staff accommodation have all been finished to a high specification for the delivery of the MPharm. MPharm students will also have access to the extensive facilities available to other courses on the Coleraine campus.

This is an exciting and challenging time for pharmacy. The government has introduced many changes that schools of pharmacy must deliver, including graduates with the clinical skills required to allow them to focus on patient-centred clinical care, i.e. to provide a more clinical MPharm. In order to provide high quality education in clinical practice, it recommends that schools of pharmacy increase their practice workforce and have an increased clinical input from practising pharmacists at Ulster. In Coleraine, we will achieve this by delivering a course that will provide a sound and comprehensive knowledge base developing into the clinical and professional practice of pharmacy. Appropriate modules will be delivered by practising community and clinical pharmacists, so that our students will be learning from both knowledge and experiences.

We will integrate as many of our students as we can into the profession from the start. There will be placements within all years of the course during pharmacy practice and clinical skills modules, to allow students to see in practice, both in hospital and community, what they are learning about in the classroom. This will promote the professional attitudes and behaviours expected of practising pharmacists. In addition, in some modules pharmacy students will be taught alongside students from other professions, in addition to case study analyses with these students, resulting in the valuable experience of interprofessional education. The hospital clinical placements will be delivered by clinical Teacher Practitioners based in Trust hospitals in Northern Ireland, while the community placements will be provided by independent and multiple community pharmacists within Northern Ireland. During these placements, students will be provided with portfolios to develop their learning skills, including lifelong learning and reflective and personal development skills.

The focus on providing a practice-based format to our teaching is illustrated in the staff competencies within the School – three pharmacy practice lecturers have all come from a practice background rather than an academic one, so their experience in the practice of pharmacy is evidence and experience based. In addition, the further development of practical experience is facilitated by developing partnerships with the employers in the region, so that students who wish to seek part-time employment, will be assisted in taking up this employment within their chosen profession from the start. This initiative has been named the ‘Pharmacy Job Shop’.

In the MPharm at Ulster University, the course team have produced an exciting, dynamic course that will meet the needs of the students, prospective employers and the pharmacy profession as a whole; resulting in graduates who have both the knowledge and social skills to begin their pharmacy career as competent junior pharmacists who are fit to practice. The integrated nature of the programme, where teaching is carried out within therapeutic areas, allows students to develop an understanding of 'Molecules to Man' - the journey of a drug compound from discovery and development, through formulation and drug delivery, to therapeutic treatment, clinical outcomes and patient-centred care.

Expand+Teaching, Learning and Assessment
The programme is taught as an integrated spiral curriculum, with the integration of science and practice elements being explicitly taught through a systems approach. Lectures, tutorials, case study orientated proble...

Hide-Teaching, Learning and Assessment
The programme is taught as an integrated spiral curriculum, with the integration of science and practice elements being explicitly taught through a systems approach. Lectures, tutorials, case study orientated problem-based learning, practical classes, including CAL packages, dispensing practical sessions, clinical and community pharmacy placements and private study, supported by essential and desirable reading, including self-directed learning. Integrated seminars, in which students work on integrated case studies, enhance the integrated nature of the programme and facilitate students understanding and engagement with the concepts. Groups and individual projects will be included. Material will be delivered by blended learning, where lectures, assignments, on-line tutorials and past exam questions will be available on-line on BBLearn; or fully online, whereby all lecture materials and assignments will only be available on BBLearn, but supported by tutorial classes. Postings on discussion areas within some modules will be required.

Assessments are outcome driven. Examinations and class tests, incorporating essay and multiple choice questions, will assess outcomes and facilitate learning and the integration of knowledge. Structured coursework will include practical reports, case studies, presentations, group reports, literature-based assignments and a research project report and poster presentations.

Expand+Work placement / study abroad
The MPharm course at Ulster has periods of work placement within each year of study, during the Professional Practice Skills modules. Placements take place within community pharmacies throughout Northern Ireland, and wi...

Hide-Work placement / study abroad
The MPharm course at Ulster has periods of work placement within each year of study, during the Professional Practice Skills modules. Placements take place within community pharmacies throughout Northern Ireland, and within the Health and Social Care Trusts. Hospital placements are suported by the Northern Ireland Teacher-Practitioner Network. Short placement visits also take place to Nicobrand and Norbrook Pharmaceutical Industries. All placement experiences allow students to develop their skills and comptencies in the practice of pharmacy from the theoretical setting on campus, to the contextual and experiential learning achieved within the employed sectors. Students are responsible for their own travel arrangments to and from placement.

These short term placements involve:
Year 1 - 2 days in community pharmacy and 1 day in hospital pharmacy

Year 2 - 2 days in community pharmacy, 5 days with the hospital teacher-practitioner network, and 1 day visit to Norbrook

Year 3 - 3 days in community pharmacy, 5 days in hospital pharmacy and 1 day visit to Norbrook

Year 4 - 4 days in community pharmacy, 1 day with practice-based pharmacists, 5 days in hospital pharmacy.

Expand+Graduate employers
Graduates from this course are now working for:
• National Health Service
• Community pharmacy
• Pharmaceutical Industry
• GP Federations

Job roles
With this degree you could become:
• Community pharmacist
• ...

Hide-Graduate employers
Graduates from this course are now working for:
• National Health Service
• Community pharmacy
• Pharmaceutical Industry
• GP Federations

Job roles
With this degree you could become:
• Community pharmacist
• Clinical pharmacist
• Primary Care Pharmacist
• Industrial pharmacist
• Medicines Information pharmacist
• Academic pharmacist
• Pre Registration Pharmacist

Career options
The future role of pharmacists lies in meeting patients' needs through working closely with patients, other healthcare professionals, the National Health Service (NHS) and the industry. Pharmacists are the only healthcare professionals with a unique knowledge and understanding of medicines from manufacture to their applications in patients, encompassing discovery and development, manufacturing, quality assurance, distribution, therapeutics, management and monitoring.

Qualified registered pharmacists can choose careers from a number of available options including healthcare provision in the high street (community pharmacists), clinical pharmacy duties and outpatient clinics (hospital pharmacists), running disease management clinics in GP practices (pripractice-based pharmacists) and pursuing medicines research in industry or academia. Pharmacists can also be prescribers, which allow them to care for all patients' drug-related needs following medical diagnosis.

In summary, the career options for qualified pharmacists include hospital, community, primary care and industrial practice, general management and administration as well as research opportunities in industry, academia, or government laboratories. Opportunities are also available for MPharm graduates to enter into MRes and MPhil/PhD programmes.