THE UNIVERSITY IS WORKING TOWARDS ACCREDITATION OF THIS PROGRAMME BY THE ROYAL PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN (RPSGB) AND THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN IRELAND (PSNI)

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 Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) 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.

Problem-based learning, tutorials, workshops and practical laboratory classes will be used to deliver this programme. External placements are arranged at hospitals, communities and industries right from the beginning and throughout the programme to ensure that the learning experience is relevant to real life job situations.

This is a 4 year full-time course.

The programme progresses along the central theme ‘molecules to patient’. The first and second year elements of the MPharm course are designed to provide base training in core sciences and practice areas, to enable a fuller appreciation of more advanced and discipline-specific Pharmacy modules studied in subsequent years. In these two years of study the students gain fundamental understanding and knowledge of the origins, structures and properties of various drug and drug-like molecules as well as other pharmaceutically important compounds. First and second years also encompass modules and learning of chemistry, Pharmaceutical manufacturing, Biochemistry, Human Physiology and Anatomy, Biostatistics and Study Skills, and Pharmacology. The second year MPharm students will also have an overview of the principles of entrepreneurship and an introduction to the basic underpinning principles in pharmacy required for year 3 of the programme.

Year three of study significantly extends student understanding of various pharmacy subject specific and profession oriented matters, building upon knowledge acquired in first year but also underpinning final year modules of study. The study of Pharmacodynamics and Pharmacokinetics, Chemical Messengers and Signalling Mechanisms, Toxicology & some aspects of Pathology have been incorporated in the modules, Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics III, Biomolecular Therapeutics and Immunology modules, and Drug Delivery Systems. The study of drug actions in various organs will be studied in the Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics modules, and also in the Drug Delivery Systems.

The Pharmacy Practice and Social Care module builds upon the second year module Pharmacy Law and Practice and extends the knowledge and understanding of the profession of pharmacy in the socio-economical context. Benefiting from the knowledge, understanding and skills gained from the modules, Pharmaceutical Chemistry I and II, and Bioactive Natural Products and Biochemistry, taught in the first and second years, the module Pharmaceutical Analysis provides a comprehensive overview and develops practical skills on various techniques related to a number of pharmaceutical assays. The module Methodologies in Pharmacy Research will prepare students for the task of carrying out final year project safely and competently. This module will also provide an overview of Research Governance and Bioethics, the issues of scientific integrity and conduct in relation to ethical and governance matters in order to inform their own scientific practice. As the MPharm programme progresses, the focus gradually shifts form drug molecules to patients.

The final year of the MPharm course will predominantly be driven by the research expertise within the School of Biomedical Sciences, as well as within the discipline of Pharmacy. Research-driven teaching and the capstone research project experience helps students best meet the common employer demand for skilled graduates who can both create and use knowledge in the workplace. The Research Project enhances student-learning in final year, encouraging students to actively engage with their subject through spending a semester in one of the recognised Research Groups of the Biomedical Sciences Research Institute (BMSRI). This experience introduces the student to the world of innovation and hypothesis driven knowledge creation and provides core lifelong learning research skills. The other final year modules are taught by practicing pharmacists and researchers who are at the cutting edge of their subjects. The Advances in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology module informs students of research in this rapidly developing area in relation to novel drug discovery, i.e. from discovery in plants or animal secretions to commercial exploitation in the Drug Discovery. The modules, Pharmaceutical Public Health and Prescribing Science, and Pharmaceutical Care prepare students for the challenges they will face in their profession as practice pharmacists working in various health and social care environments. The Pharmaceutical Public Health and Prescribing Science module develops essential skills, knowledge and understanding of pharmaceutical public health in relation to the practice of Pharmacy, and the ability to formulate, implement and appraise clinical management strategies and plans for individual patients within the recently introduced supplementary prescribing frameworks. The Pharmaceutical Care module provides students with the ability to formulate and evaluate pharmaceutical care plans for individual patients in primary and secondary health care.

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 (primary care 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.

The MPharm graduates are required to undertake a consequent year of training in practice, called Pre-registration, where acceptance is not automatic. Before completion of the pre-registration training, the graduate must pass a registration examination before they can register as a pharmacist in Great Britain or Northern Ireland.

Useful Web Links
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB): http://www.rpsgb.org.uk/ The Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland: http://www.psni.org.uk/index.php

Dr Kathryn Burnett
Senior Lecturer
Tel: 028 70323283
Email: k.burnett@ulster.ac.uk