The new MPharm degree has been launched to “meet this growing demand” for pharmacists, after the 2023 NHS long term workforce plan highlighted a “shortfall of pharmacists, particularly in the North West”.
The school will aim to become “a hub for innovation” in digital health, AI and personalised medicine, and its “non-modular, spiral curriculum” will help students be “confident and competent” to succeed across community, hospital, academia or the industry areas of the pharmacy sector.
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University professor Louise Kenny said the new school is “an important step in our mission at the faculty to improve health and wellbeing by tackling the major challenges that affect our communities”.
Some £30m has been invested into “state-of-the-art facilities” which includes laboratories and a pharmacy practice suite home to “a mock community pharmacy and fully equipped dispensary” for students to practise “in realistic environments”.
Dean of the school of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, professor Lesley Howell, said the university is “incredibly proud” to open the new school to give students an “integrated experience that brings together science and practice from the outset”.
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“Together, we will shape a new generation of leaders to advance the profession and make a lasting difference to health and wellbeing,” she added.
The university said the new school will mean it delivers the “most comprehensive suite of clinical programmes within the Russell Group” universities.
It added it will work with local partners “to improve health outcomes across the region” and ensure “graduates are both workforce-ready and future-ready”.
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It comes as the University of Suffolk announced a new pharmacy degree last month to start in September 2026 to help address the industry’s “skills shortage”.
And the University of Sunderland was ranked the number one UK university for pharmacy and pharmacology by The Guardian in September.
