Pharmacy Practice MSc
Year of entry 2025
- Start date
- January 2026
- Delivery type
- On campus
- Duration
- 39 months part time
- Entry requirements
- A bachelor degree with a 2:1 (hons) in pharmacy + registration + practice access.
Full entry requirements - UK fees
- £14,252 (Total)
- Available to UK residents only
- Yes
Course overview
This course is open to UK-registered pharmacists with patient-facing roles across all sectors of practice. Developed in partnership with workplaces across the region, a team of academic and practice experts have crafted this course to support pharmacists to deliver excellent person-centred care and to meet the challenges of a rapidly advancing profession. Mapped to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) Post-Registration Foundation Framework, this MSc provides opportunity to gather portfolio evidence if you are working towards RPS credentialing.
In your first year, you will develop your personal, professional and clinical skills needed for a range of long-term conditions. This offers you the foundation needed to deliver safe and effective patient care, coupled with the communication, educational and professional skills needed to deliver this with optimal efficacy.
In the second year, you will focus on delivering high-quality care across a range of specialist conditions, and on service improvement in practice. You will have a choice of optional modules including independent prescribing, allowing you to tailor your learning.
The final year is focused on developing your research skills, providing opportunity for research methods training before going on to apply this knowledge to a dissertation project. You'll apply the principles of medicines optimisation through critical evaluation of both national guidance and the primary evidence underpinning this. Themes around understanding medicines use from the patients’ perspective - ensuring medicines use is evidence-based and as safe as possible - run throughout the course.
You will work in partnership with academics and work-based educational supervisors. This practice-based approach supports authentic assessment, based directly on your experiences of practice. You will undertake learning needs analyses across the duration of the course to inform development of individualised learning plans.
The School of Healthcare is part of the Faculty of Medicine and Health, a centre of excellence in the provision of high quality education and research which develops knowledge that informs and improves practice.
You can also study this subject at Postgraduate Diploma level.
Course details
This part-time course allows you to develop a full range of skills necessary for advancing your pharmacy career, enabling you to deliver excellence in person-centred care.
Optional modules in the second year enable tailoring of your MSc to your specific interests and work-based opportunities. There are opportunities to gain Independent Prescriber status as part of the course, to focus on clinical assessment, or on ongoing professional development.
On successful completion of the course, you will be able to:
- Critically apply specialist knowledge in order to provide pharmaceutical care to patients with a range of core and specialist conditions.
- Demonstrate a pro-active and self-reflective approach to leadership, to achieve high standards of performance and personal development.
- Effectively communicate complex information and provide specialised advice within the healthcare environment.
- Critically evaluate and manage medicines use, to ensure patient safety and optimise patient care.
- Synthesise strategies and work effectively with others to develop and evaluate new services.
- Critically evaluate current medicines-related issues and undertake new research to inform and advance practice.
You will be studying in a research-based learning environment. Our programme team includes experts in educational theory and work-based learning, medicines adherence, health behavior change, person-centred care, medicines information and medicines optimisation in care homes. Our high-quality research informs national and international policy and practice to ensure the safe and effective use of medicines; our work in reducing medication errors and improving safety in care homes has had a significant impact on policy and practice.
The Programme Leader is Dr Claire Easthall.
Course structure
The list shown below represents typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time. Read more in our terms and conditions.
Year 1 compulsory modules
| Module Name | Credits |
|---|---|
| Personal and Professional Development in Healthcare | 30 |
| Pharmaceutical Care: Core Conditions | 30 |
Year 2 compulsory modules
| Module Name | Credits |
|---|---|
| Service Development Within Healthcare | 15 |
| Pharmaceutical Care: Specialist Conditions | 15 |
Year 2 optional modules (selection of typical options shown below)
In Year 2, students also have to undertake 30 credits of optional modules.
| Module Name | Credits |
|---|---|
| Clinical Examination | 30 |
| Independent Prescribing for Pharmacists | 30 |
| Learning from Practice 2 | 30 |
Year 3 compulsory modules
| Module Name | Credits |
|---|---|
| Dissertation | 45 |
| Research Methods | 15 |
Learning and teaching
You will learn through a mixture of study days, e-learning and work-based learning. Whilst almost all of our study days are delivered in person a handful are delivered via synchronous online sessions, allowing you access to innovative digital technologies and different ways of learning. Our study days adopt a small group teaching tutorial-style format, whereby delivery of taught content is combined with breakout activities which allow application of learning to case-scenarios and your experiences of practice through peer discussion.
You will also learn through case-based discussion both in the workplace and on study sessions, allowing you to share learning with your peers. We offer a fully inclusive and active approach to learning where opportunities to create a sense of belonging are sought.
Our teaching methods support flexible, work-based learning and develop skills for lifelong learning. Teachers and facilitators draw on a range of expertise in education, clinical practice and research. Many of the optional modules are multi-disciplinary, allowing you the opportunity to learn from members of the wider multidisciplinary team.
On this course, you’ll be taught by our expert academics, from lecturers through to professors. You may also be taught by industry professionals with years of experience, as well as trained postgraduate researchers, connecting you to some of the brightest minds on campus.
Assessment
We use a variety of assessment approaches throughout this course, including work-based assessment, consultation skills, essays and oral presentations. The assessments are skillfully developed by leading academics with expertise in educational theory, to allow you to showcase your learning and development when applied to topics of interest to your own practice. This authentic assessment approach facilitates partnership working between your academic and work-based learning.
Almost all of your assessments will involve some level of choosing a patient or medicines-related case from your practice to critically analyse and reflect upon. Our focus on critically evaluating the patient and medicines-related cases from your workplace will enhance the ability to bring together evidence from a variety of sources, and critically understand and conceptually evaluate contemporary debates.
Your assessments will also challenge you to develop the writing, presentation, communication and critical thinking skills necessary for career progression, specifically in pharmacy but as wider transferable skills too. Our continuous feedback mechanism and regular review ensure that your assessments remain relevant, meaningful and engaging.
This MSc is not a professionally accredited qualification. However, if you opt to take Independent Prescribing as your optional module in year two, successful completion of this element will provide you with General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) accreditation as an Independent Prescriber. Our Independent Prescribing module is delivered by an interdisciplinary team of leading experts and is a fully accredited course with the GPhC.
Applying
Entry requirements
- A bachelor degree with a 2:1 (hons) in pharmacy.
- Current registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) or Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
- Access to appropriate pharmacy practice to allow the undertaking of work-based assignments.
- Appointment of an agreed work-based tutor and support from a work-based manager.
Opportunities for the accreditation of prior certificate learning and prior experiential learning exist through the school's credit accumulation and transfer procedures.
How to apply
The ‘Apply’ link at the top of this page will take you to information on applying for taught programmes and to the University's online application system.
If you're unsure about the application process, contact the admissions team for help.
Admissions policy
Taught Admissions Policy 2025-26
This course is taught by
Contact us
School of Healthcare Admissions Team
Email: admissions@healthcare.leeds.ac.uk
Telephone:
Fees
UK: £14,252 (Total)
Read more about paying fees and charges.
Additional cost information
There may be additional costs related to your course or programme of study, or related to being a student at the University of Leeds. Read more on our living costs and budgeting page.
Scholarships and financial support
If you have the talent and drive, we want you to be able to study with us, whatever your financial circumstances. There may be help for students in the form of loans and non-repayable grants from the University and from the government. Find out more at Masters funding overview.
Career opportunities
On completion of the course, you will be well equipped to progress to more senior or specialist pharmacy posts in either primary or secondary care. Moreover, the research skills developed in your third year of this MSc will pave the way for pursuit of clinical academic careers.
Careers support
We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.
The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate. Find out more about Careers support.