MPharm Pharmacy with a Foundation Year

Applicants should apply for either the MPharm or the Pharmacy Foundation Year and should not submit an application for both. Please ensure you check the entry requirements for each option before submitting your application. 

Please note that under planned new legislation, vaccination for Covid will be a mandatory requirement for any course with a clinical or healthcare placement in future.

Interviews will be scheduled via Zoom and will be conducted one-to-one with an academic member of staff.

The interviews will be timetabled for 20 minutes, and this will allow you to ask any questions you might have about the Foundation course.

We will ensure that you are given plenty of notice about the interview and, if necessary, we will be happy to reschedule if the date/time is inconvenient.

Please note that the interview is an essential part of the application process. Those who fail to attend, without prior explanation, will have their application withdrawn.

Applicants being considered for interview will receive a decision through UCAS Track and will be sent more information on the interview via email.

We welcome applications from those wishing to return to education. All such applications are considered on an individual basis.

We would normally only consider applicants who obtained the relevant qualification within the three years prior to application. If your most recent qualification was taken more than three years ago, please contact the Admissions Office ( ug.pharmacy@manchester.ac.uk ).

We will consider each application individually and may require you to submit further information, such as transcripts and details of employment. 

Becoming a pharmacist after a UK-based course (advice from the Pharmacy Schools Council)

After the successful completion of the course, you will receive an MPharm degree. There are further steps to go through before you will be able to register with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and practise as a qualified pharmacist in the UK.

Once you have completed an MPharm, you will need to apply for a Foundation training year, where you will further develop the skills you gained during your degree as a paid employee in a professional environment.

Entrance to the Foundation training year is competitive and there is no guarantee that you will receive a place. A proportion of these Foundation training places are with the NHS, but the majority of placements involve working with community pharmacists.

Again, you should be aware that your place on the Foundation training year is not guaranteed, as the number of available placements is dependent on different factors.

One such factor is that the availability of Foundation year places offered by community pharmacies can vary from year to year.

After the completion of 52 weeks of Foundation training, and subject to you passing the common registration assessment, you will be eligible to register with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and practise as a fully qualified pharmacist.

Pharmacy is one of the registered healthcare professions and carries both privileges and responsibilities. You must demonstrate that you are able to exercise those privileges and bear those responsibilities. To join the pharmacy profession at the end of your training, you must abide by the General Pharmaceutical Council's (GPhC) Student Code of Conduct and undergo a medical fitness assessment and a Disclosure and Barring Service check at the start of your degree.

When the time comes to apply to join the register of pharmacists, you must also make a health declaration and submit to character checks. If you wish to study pharmacy, you should note that your fitness to practise both before and/or during your studies may impair your eligibility to register and practice as a pharmacist.

Communication and dress code

We have adopted the same policy regarding dress code as set out by the General Medical Council (GMC). The GMC states that non-verbal communication is at least as important as verbal communication, and so how a student or pharmacist appears to patients, relatives or colleagues means as much as what he or she says.

It follows from the GMC guidance that students (and pharmacists) in professional settings must dress in a manner that adds to, and does not detract from, effective communication.

Furthermore, the Code of Conduct for Pharmacy Students states that students must learn how to listen to patients and their carers, and communicate effectively with them in a way they can understand.

How you appear as a student professional or a pharmacist is something all students and graduates must consider and respond to. In general, students should be clean and smartly dressed. The following are not permitted as they are deemed to be incompatible with effective, sensitive communication:

• wearing a t-shirt with slogans;
• baseball hats;
• visible body art;
• large amounts of body and face jewellery;
• revealing clothing that may be considered unacceptable by patients;
• covering most of the face.

This is true not only in clinical settings, but also throughout the educational elements of the undergraduate course, which is built around group work with other students and tutors.

In addition, the convention of some units may require wearing white coats or other approved clothing. Hair should be tied back if it interferes with, or adds risk, to a clinical interaction.

Students must be able to participate fully in communication and other skills training, discussion and assessment. As well as adhering to the dress code above, it means being able to interact fully with patients, standardised patients, teachers and examiners of any cultural or ethnic background or either gender.

Fitness to Practise procedures

Where a course requires the student to undertake practical training in a quasi-professional role in relation to patients, clients or service users, or where the qualification provides a direct licence to practise, The University of Manchester has a duty to ensure that students are fit to practise.

To protect present or future patients, clients or service users - and to comply with the requirements of professional/regulatory bodies - we have established a procedure for dealing with student-related fitness to practise issues.

A pharmacy student's fitness to practise is called into question when their behaviour or health raises a serious or persistent cause for concern about their ability or suitability to continue on the MPharm course.

This includes, but is not limited to, the possibility that they could put patients, the public, other students, staff or themselves at risk, and the need to maintain the public's trust in the pharmacy profession.

Issues surrounding professional behaviour and fitness to practise are monitored and investigated initially. We consider cases that are brought to us and follow initial investigations via appropriate staff.

For information specific to the University, please read:

• Guidance and procedure for applicants to the Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) Programme (Word, 73KB)
• Medical Fitness Assessment Procedure (Word, 59KB).

Applicants and students should note that we treat all information disclosed by students in the strictest of confidence. Information about a student's fitness to practise will ONLY be disclosed to the GPhC when the Faculty's Committee on Fitness to Practise has imposed sanctions upon the student.

When sanctions have been imposed, the student must also disclose them to the GPhC if they apply to join the register of pharmacists. Sanctions include

• conditions or undertakings
• suspension from the course
• expulsion from the course.

To ensure students are of good character as part of the GPhC's fitness to practise requirements, you must complete a self-declaration form at interview and then annually and submit to a criminal records check during the first year of the MPharm course.

You must declare any convictions, cautions or reprimands received at any time before or during your studies, either in this country or in other countries.

The criminal records check is an Enhanced Level search by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). We will assist you in the completion of these forms.

To assess good character, the GPhC Good Character Framework is used.

International applicants will need to submit an overseas police check, and this will be included as a formal offer condition.

Applications for deferred entry are considered equally to other applications up to the point of confirmation. Requests for deferred entry are granted on the discretion of admissions staff and are normally granted for one year only.

If you applied in the previous year and your application was not successful you may apply again. Your application will be considered against the standard course entry criteria for that year of entry.  In your new application you should demonstrate how your application has improved.  We may draw upon all information from your previous applications or any previous registrations at the University as a student when assessing your suitability for your chosen course.If you are applying for a place for the same year of entry through UCAS Extra, you should provide additional evidence of your suitability for the course. If you are applying through clearing you are required to meet the clearing requirements. In both UCAS Extra and clearing the places will be subject to availability.