A central location in Copenhagen places the University of Copenhagen and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical

Sciences squarely in the Oeresund Region and Medicon Valley – a major global centre of excellence for
medicine and biotechnology.

PHARMA provides education and research focusing on the pharmaceutical sector covering all the main
aspects of drugs: the fundamental knowledge of how drugs act, the design and development of new active
substances and their subsequent formulation into drugs, and the use and role of medicines in society.

A group of scientists in high demand

Pharmaceutical exports have increased dramatically in recent years and are now Denmark’s biggest export
item. This vigorous growth has generated a corresponding increase in demand for pharmacists and other
graduates with a pharmaceutical background.

Although PHARMA admits 230 undergraduate students a year and the number of PhD students is high, the
present student intake will barely meet the demands of Denmark’s research-intensive pharmaceutical
industry.

Employment figures reflect the subsequent high demand for pharmacists. For many years, 65 per cent of
pharmacy graduates have found employment in private enterprises – primarily the pharmaceutical industry,
where pharmacists make up a third of industrial chemists and a quarter of all academic staff – while the
remainder are employed in community pharmacies (15 per cent) and the public sector, including hospital
pharmacies (20 per cent).

The rapid development Denmark is also currently undergoing in the fields of clinical pharmacy and
pharmacotherapy is boosting the need in both the primary and the secondary health care sectors for
pharmacists and other MSc graduates with relevant expertise.

Danish pharmacists
The programme in pharmacy aims to provide a scientific platform of theoretical knowledge, ethical, critical
and analytical methods, and practical skills in the pharmaceutical sciences.

The five-year programme (a three-year full-time bachelor’s programme followed by a two-year full-time MSc
programme) focuses on the perception of the pharmacist as a drug specialist. Consequently, the programme
primarily targets employment in the pharmaceutical sector (the pharmaceutical industry, pharmacies and
hospital pharmacies) and in regulatory bodies.

Research-based teaching, subject integration and problembased learning give students the scientific
background for positions in both the private and the public sectors – wherever teamwork in the biological,
chemical and pharmaceutical fields is needed.

Educational programmes for the future

In addition to the MSc degree in pharmacy, the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences offers a full-time MSc
programme, the MSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences, for students with bachelor’s degrees in the non-
pharmaceutical disciplines of the natural sciences, healthcare or technical sciences. Graduates from this MSc
programme will primarily find employment opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry, including the
biotech and medical device industries.

Since 2004 PHARMA has offered two part-time master’s programmes for graduates with at least two years
of relevant work experience: Master of Industrial Drug Development (MIND) and Master of Drug
Management (MDM).
In 2007, for the first time the Faculty offered a third master’s programme, Master of Pharmaceutical
Regulatory Affairs (MPRA). This programme is jointly developed and offered in collaboration with the Danish
Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry (Lif).

Extensive student influence

In Denmark, students have a large say about the content of the various study programmes. Programmes
are determined by study boards composed 50/50 of teachers and students.

Students also exercise influence on the teaching itself through the student representatives on each
department’s teaching committee.