Industrial Placements

In 2011/12 over 50 students will undertake either an industrial placement or take part in a 12-month international exchange during the penultimate year of their degree program. The industrial placement option is available to all MChem students and it is possible to transfer into this program at any stage during years 1 and 2 prior to taking part in the recruitment process during year 3.

GSK is a long-standing host for our industrial placement students in their laboratories in UK, USA and Singapore	A typical medicinal chemistry laboratory where many students choose to work during their industrial placement.

The destinations of placement students include multinational pharmaceutical and agrochemicals companies (e.g. GSK, Astra Zeneca, Novartis, Pfizer, Syngenta), consumer products companies (e.g. Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Reckit Benckiser), government research institutes (e.g. The Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory, The Atomic Weapons Establishment) and many others. Students are visited twice during the year by a member of academic staff assigned as their Academic Supervisor.

There are also a number of hosts in other European countries (e.g. France, Germany, The Netherlands) which are valuable for students seeking to improve or use their foreign language abilities during their industrial year. The number of opportunities in the USA has also been increased in recent years and includes companies such as Dupont, Wrigley and GSK, and research institutes such as the Argonne and Los Alamos National Laboratories.

An Aerial view of the Los Alamos National Labroatory in New Mexico which hosts our industrial placement students

Students derive significant benefit from the experience of working in industry for a year. The growth in confidence and maturity provided by the opportunity to apply the scientific knowledge gained from the earlier years of their degree program should not be underestimated. The benefits to future employability are also very significant.

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