Postgraduate Prospectus

The School of Chemistry has a vigorous internationally leading research portfolio and was ranked second in the UK in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). Our research covers inorganic and materials, organic and biological, and physical and theoretical chemistry, and their interfaces with biology, engineering, materials, nanoscience, physics and astronomy.

Teaching and Research
Our teaching is rated as ‘excellent’ in the most recent TQA, over 80% of our PhD students submit their thesis within 4 years, and the School is highlighted in the Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE) Excellence Group for Masters and Doctoral degrees. The PhD degree provides a high-quality research experience which is complemented by study and training which enables students to gain skills in many areas including knowledge transfer, communication, outreach and commercialisation. We also offer MSc (by research), MRes and MPhil research Masters degrees. Our taught MSc degrees offer innovative learning and research in nanoscience and chemistry with entrepreneurship.

Facilities
The School’s research laboratories are located in a purpose-designed building and in the nearby interdisciplinary Centre for Biomolecular Sciences. Instrumentation facilities include a £2 million Centre for Mass Spectrometry, high-field and solid-state nmr, single crystal CCD, powder X-ray, XPS, ToF SIMS, world-class lasers and high-performance computing. Our new £10 million Engineering and Science Teaching and Learning Centre has a dedicated Graduate Centre.

Funding
The School raises over £10m per annum from UK research councils, the EU and industry, and recruits over 60 fully-funded postgraduates each year. It has long-established links with major pharmaceutical, chemical, industrial and commercial companies, both nationally and internationally. As well as funding studentships, companies such as GSK and AstraZeneca actively recruit from our postgraduate cohort annually and offer a wide range of placement opportunities.