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This master's course has been designed to respond to the increasing demand for professional pharmacologists.
Year of entry
Location
Coventry University (Coventry)
Study mode
Full-time
Part-time
Duration
1 year full-time
2 years part-time
18-20 months (with professional experience)
Course code
HLST178, HLST179 (with Professional Experience)
Start date
September 2025
May 2026
At Coventry University, we continuously review the courses we offer to ensure we reflect industry-relevant emerging best practice and technology. As a result, this course is undergoing continuous improvement assessment and will be launched with a renewed curriculum starting in September 2025. Module content and titles will be updated. Course title, learning outcomes and assessments may also change. We expect our new curriculum to be fully updated by January 2025. Please return to this page to see the final course details.
Professional pharmacologists are essential to speed up the critical task of translating basic laboratory medical research into commercially ready medical biotechnology and drugs for diagnosing and treating patients.
The MSc with Professional Experience2 provides you with the opportunity to undertake a six-month professional experience either on or off campus. Professional experience opportunities (whether within an external company or within the university) are subject to a competitive application and selection process. Such experiences may be paid or unpaid, and this will depend on what is being offered and agreed with the host organisation or university.
Professional experience opportunities are subject to competitive application and selection, will normally be undertaken for three to five days per week for 18-22 weeks over two semesters. If you are not successful in securing professional work experience outside the university, you will have the opportunity to undertake campus-based professional experience, which will deliver similar learning outcomes through supervised projects and activities designed to offer students the opportunity to integrate theory with an understanding of professional practice. Please note that fees for students on the Professional Experience route are higher than the standard fees payable by students on the MSc course without professional experience (see fees section for more information).
This course is accredited1 and recognised by the following bodies:
As part of this course, you will undertake a professional development module which is currently accredited by the Chartered Management Institute for the 2023-24 intake. Upon successful completion of this module, you will gain the CMI Level 7 Certificate in Strategic Management and Leadership Practice at no additional cost. Further details can be found under the module section and on the Professional Development module homepage.
With space for over 250 students and packed full of industry-standard equipment, the Coventry University Superlab is an amazing place to learn, experiment and discover. Find out what we’re doing in our Superlab to make it greener and reduce our waste and carbon emissions.
This master’s course is designed to expand your knowledge of the pharmacological, molecular, biochemical, cell biological and genetic techniques underpinning modern pharmacology and drug discovery and how they can be used to solve real world problems and benefit society.
We provide hands-on practical experience of both laboratory and bioinformatics techniques. You will be trained in pharmacology research strategies and gain an understanding of the nature of business based on bioscience knowledge and research, opportunities for innovation, and regulatory requirement constraints, intellectual property and ethical issues.
We regularly review our course content, to make it relevant and current for the benefit of our students. For these reasons, course modules may be updated.
Teaching and learning incorporates lectures, workshops, tutorials, presentations and practical laboratory sessions, all supported by an extensive suite of analytical and biological laboratories staffed by experienced technicians. In addition, each module is supported by extensive online material to help prepare you for your taught sessions and to assist with your personal study.
Where possible, coursework uses applied tasks that mimic the skills needed in jobs to help ensure you are attractive to future employers, such as oral and poster presentations, and the collection and interpretation of laboratory data culminating in a detailed report. We try to organise industry visits and also offer the opportunity to apply for internships2, which have led to previous students spending time with companies such as Inocardia, Severn Trent Water and Lytegro.
You will receive a series of lectures and seminars on selected contemporary topics in pharmacology and drug discovery, delivered by university teaching, research staff and invited speakers from other universities, research institutes, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries (subject to availability).
This course can be offered on a part-time basis. Whilst we would like to give you all the information about our part-time offering here, it is tailored for each course each year depending on the number of part-time applicants. Therefore, the part-time teaching arrangements vary. Request further information about part-time study.
In a typical teaching week, you will have around 15 contact hours of teaching. This generally breaks down as approximately 3 hours of laboratory sessions and 12 hours of lectures, workshops and tutorials each week.
In addition, you will be expected to undertake a further 25 hours of self-directed study each week e.g. working on coursework assignments.
The contact hours may be made up of a combination of face-to-face teaching, individual and group tutorials, and online classes and tutorials.
As an innovative and enterprising institution, the University may seek to utilise emerging technologies within the student experience. For all courses (whether on-campus, blended, or distance learning), the University may deliver certain contact hours and assessments via online technologies and methods.
Since COVID-19, we have delivered our courses in a variety of forms, in line with public authority guidance, decisions, or orders and we will continue to adapt our delivery as appropriate. Whether on campus or online, our key priority is staff and student safety.
This course will be assessed using a variety of methods which will vary depending upon the module.
Assessment methods include:
The Coventry University Group assessment strategy ensures that our courses are fairly assessed and allows us to monitor student progression towards achieving the intended learning outcomes.
The university is committed to providing a global educational experience2, which is reflected throughout the teaching experience. This course typically attracts students from across the world, who are seeking to improve their scientific and laboratory skills in pharmacology, using British standard equipment and gaining extensive practical laboratory time. As such, you’re likely to find yourself part of a multicultural learning environment, working alongside students who will share their own professional and personal experiences.
You will benefit from being taught by a diverse range of staff with different international experiences. Some modules have external speakers who have an international research background (subject to availability).
Student | Full-time | Part-time |
---|---|---|
UK, Ireland*, Channel Islands or Isle of Man | 2025/26 fees TBC 2024/25 fees - £11,200 | £21,250 (with prof. experience) |
Request fee information |
EU | 2025/26 fees TBC 2024/25 fees - £11,200 | £21,250 (with prof. experience) per year with EU Support Bursary** 2025/26 fees TBC 2024/25 fees - £18,600 | £21,250 (with prof. experience) per year without EU Support Bursary** |
Not available |
International | 2025/26 fees TBC 2024/25 fees - £18,600 | £21,250 (with prof. experience) |
Not available |
For advice and guidance on tuition fees3 and student loans visit our Postgraduate Finance page.
We offer a range of International scholarships to students all over the world. For more information, visit our International Scholarships page.
Tuition fees cover the cost of your teaching, assessments, facilities and support services. There may be additional costs not covered by this fee such as accommodation and living costs, recommended reading books, stationery, printing and re-assessments should you need them.
The following are additional costs not included in the tuition fees:
The rights of Irish residents to study in the UK are preserved under the Common Travel Area arrangement. If you are an Irish student and meet the residency criteria, you can study in England, pay the same level of tuition fees as English students and utilise the Tuition Fee Loan.
Following the UK's exit from the European Union, we are offering financial support to all eligible EU students who wish to study an undergraduate or a postgraduate degree with us full-time. This bursary will be used to offset the cost of your tuition fees to bring them in line with that of UK students. Students studying a degree with a foundation year with us are not eligible for the bursary.
The Alison Gingell Building contains a state-of-the-art SuperLab. The lab's facilities include equipment for microscopy, DNA analysis and in vitro experimental testing as well as cell culture facilities, organ baths to investigate in vitro models using tissue, and molecular biology facilities and equipment4.
Our SuperLab can hold up to 250 students at one time and has equipment that allows you to gain skills and experience with techniques and equipment that you will encounter in your graduate careers including biosafety hoods, flow cytometers and DNA sequencers.
This is where you can apply your practical and theoretical knowledge to real-life working scenarios. We use a new generation chromatography technique to analyse products ranging from pharmaceutical agents, to cosmetics, drinks and toxins.
This master’s aims to produce scientists who can pursue a range of careers including academic, commercial, industrial and healthcare applications of pharmacology. It also provides an excellent foundation for those wishing to undertake research at PhD level.
If you choose the extended ‘With Professional Experience’ route, you will have the opportunity to gain substantive professional experience and have the option of applying for an internship with a host of different organisations or participate in supervised, campus-based projects2. Internships have previously been organised with, for example, Cambridge Scientific Solutions, Lytegro, Warwick Ventures, Tickle’s Pickles and Severn Trent.
The programme is specifically designed to equip you with the skills and knowledge required for a career within the pharmacology and drug development arena and there may be many opportunities, both the UK and internationally.
A large number of pharmacologists are employed by companies in the pharmaceutical industry, where they are involved in discovering and developing drugs and carrying out clinical trials. Pharmacologists may also work for contract research organisations (CROs) or academic departments within universities on research projects. There may also be opportunities within government laboratories (including environmental agencies), charity-funded research organisations, such as the Medical Research Council (MRC), and with other research institutes.
The scientific knowledge and skills you should acquire upon successful completion of this course can also be a useful basis for a career in teaching; technical and scientific writing (such as medical writing or writing for the media); clinical trials; drug registration, patenting or monitoring; medical publishing or other information services, regulatory affairs or sales and marketing.