First Pharmacy facilities completed ahead of inaugural cohort

The first phase of development of facilities for the University of Suffolk’s new Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) course have been completed.

The new pharmacy practice suite, which contains the mock dispensary, and the telehealth room have opened in the University’s Health and Wellbeing Building, ready for the first cohort of students joining the course this September.

The second phase of work is currently taking place in the James Hehir Building, where new specialist labs for pharmacy and life sciences are being installed, and will be completed later this summer.

The new pharmacy practice suite incorporates a mock dispensary and will provide a hands-on space for students to hone their dispensing and diagnostic skills and to practise prescribing consultations, while the open-plan teaching space provides a collaborative environment for students to develop their clinical reasoning skills and facilitate professional and ethical discussions.

The telehealth space is a dedicated area specially designed for students to practice remote consultations, reflecting the future facing design of the MPharm course.
The development has been supported by £457,600 of investment by the Office for Students, allocated as part of its priority sectors for growth.

Meanwhile, a £1,000 bursary will be available for the first intake of MPharm students joining in September 2026.

The Pharmacy Award will be available to home students only, and is designed to help support them as they begin their studies.

Dr Georgina Marsh, Head of Pharmacy and Prescribing at the University of Suffolk, said: “These impressive facilities will play a vital role in our teaching for our first students who arrive this September.

“Ensuring students have practical and simulated facilities, where they can safely apply the skills they learn to real world scenarios, is an important part of their development, ensuring they build confidence as clinicians for the workplace.”

The new degree is a four-year course which features an integrated Master’s, and is designed to prepare students as future-ready pharmacists, combining a strong foundation in pharmaceutical science with hands-on clinical experience from the outset.

Designed around real-world healthcare practice, it will equip students with skills in digital pharmacy, clinical reasoning, and patient-centred care, while addressing key public health challenges.

The university is working towards accreditation of the programme with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). The programme will be provisionally accredited until the accreditation process is complete, upon the graduation of its first cohort in 2030.

The full course team featuring pharmacists and experienced academics is also now in place, with specialisms in areas such as molecular biology, drug development, pharmaceutical chemistry and digital healthcare among other areas.

The development of the course comes as part of a commitment to address the skills shortage of pharmacists.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan published in 2023 outlined a need to increase the number of pharmacists nationally by 31-55 per cent, and ambitions to increase training places for pharmacists by nearly 50 per cent by 2031-32.

Professor Paula Kersten, Dean of the School of Health, Sciences and Society, said: “The completion of our first phase of work is a landmark moment in the development of this brand-new course, which will play a key role in addressing the local, regional and national demand for pharmacists.

“As a civic university, the University of Suffolk has committed to developing the future skills needs for our health and social care sector, which in recent years has included developing undergraduate courses in Physiotherapy and Dental Hygiene and Therapy, and the new MPharm programme is the latest development to ensure we play an active role in the skills development of our future health workforce.”

Applications to join the first cohort this September can still be made through Clearing. Find out more about the programme and how to apply on the website here.

Full information and conditions on the Pharmacy Award bursary are available on the website here.