Queen’s University Belfast has been named as the top pharmacy school in the UK by the Complete University Guide.
It uses data from the National Student Survey, the Research Excellence Framework and the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) to rank universities according to their entry standards, student satisfaction, research quality, and graduate prospects.
The University of Strathclyde came in at second, with Cardiff University and Ulster University following.
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Strathclyde’s MPharm director Dr Sara Cordeiro said the ranking “reflects our commitment to excellence in pharmacy education, research and innovation”.
Ulster University pharmacy school head Paul McCarron said the ranking reflects its “outstanding” student experience that “is at the heart of our programme which combines rigorous teaching, strong pastoral support, and a vibrant research culture”.
The University of Manchester is the only English pharmacy school in the top five.
The subject ranking includes universities that offer pharmacy and pharmacology, with some ranked only for pharmacology studies as they don’t have pharmacy schools.
Strengths
Cardiff’s pharmacy school head Professor Andrew Westwell said the achievement is “testament to the hard work and dedication of our staff, students, and partners”.
“We aim to equip our graduates with the skills, confidence and compassion needed to play a vital role across the NHS and beyond,” he said.
Newcastle University, which came in at seventh, said it has worked hard since establishing the course in 2017 to give its students “the best experience possible”.
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Pharmacy school head Professor Andy Husband said Newcastle had focused on providing “high-quality, evidence-based care to the public, ensuring the safe and effective use of medicines in all sectors of practice”.
And Swansea University had its first MPharm cohort graduate in 2025.
Its pharmacy school head Professor Andrew Morris praised the school’s “innovative, research-led pharmacy education” after it was ranked eighth.
“Since our first MPharm cohort entered the pharmacy workforce we have continued to build on our strengths in education and research, with a growing community of postgraduate researchers contributing to advances across practice and the pharmaceutical sciences,” he said.
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Keele University came eleventh. Pharmacy school head Professor Heidi Fuller said its strength is the “scale and quality of our partnerships with primary and secondary care pharmacy organisations” that has helped its students “to benefit from extensive, practice-based learning”.
University of Bradford finished thirteenth and it’s pharmacy associate professor Dr Gemma Quinn praised the “team-based learning” that prepares students in “collaboration, problem-solving and real-life scenarios”.
The new ranking follows two UK universities being ranked in the top 10 of universities in the world for pharmacy in March.
In December, Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) announced the number of applications for the MPharm has doubled in six years to 36,670.
