This is our most challenging programme, combining a complete MChem programme with a year of paid industrial research experience – an ideal combination if you wish to become a professional chemist and pursue a high-level research career in Chemistry after graduation. A one-year industrial placement will enhance your practical and intellectual skills and benefit you when you return for your final year. In today’s competitive job market, prior industrial experience is also highly sought after by employers.

All our programmes have a common chemistry core which provides a good measure of flexibility and choice for you during the first two years. This programme is identical to the first two years of the MChem Chemistry (F102) programme. Since students enter the Department with a wide range of experience in mathematics (which is essential for studying chemistry to a high level) we provide a flexible tiered maths for chemistry course allowing you to develop your skills at your own pace.

In Year Three you take up your paid industrial placement (recent examples of employers are AstraZeneca, Beckmann Coulter (China), Dyesol, Ineos, GlaxoSmithKline (UK and US), Johnson Matthey, Reckitt Benckiser, and Sigma-Aldrich). While you are on placement, you take a specially developed chemistry module by distance learning that covers the core chemistry studied by the third year students not taking up placements. If you choose not to take up a placement, you can transfer onto the MChem Chemistry (F102) programme in Year Two or at the start of Year Three.

In your final year, you will return to Liverpool and take a range of advanced core modules in inorganic, physical and organic chemistry and can tailor your studies to choose high-level modules in areas that interest you and that are related to our research areas. Chemical research is particularly important in Year Four and involves you conducting a significant project as a member of one of the research groups in the Department.

Our graduates develop a wide range of skills including numeracy, problem solving and IT in addition to scientific skills.

Visits to the Department by leading companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and Unilever ensure that you make contact with prospective employers at key stages in your final year. Graduates find employment in many areas, from the pharmaceutical industry to business management. Typical careers of our graduates include assistant analyst, development chemist, research assistant, and site chemist.