We ranked 8th in the UK for Chemistry in the Guardian University Guide 2024.

All our courses offer the option to take an employability-boosting professional placement year - a great way to gain on-the-job experience in a real role with real responsibilities. A year spent applying your learning in an industrial, commercial or research context gives you invaluable work experience to strengthen your CV and can even introduce you to your future employer.

Assisted by a dedicated placement tutor and the University's Careers Network, our students have found placements with a wide range of reputable organisations. 

Recent placement destinations for our students include: Lubrizol, Reckitt Benckiser, GE Healthcare, Nemaura Pharma, Pirelli Tyres, and the Home Office (Centre for Applied Science and Technology).

Alternatively, you can use your placement year to study abroad with one of our partner institutions; spend six months on placement and six months studying abroad; or even do a self-employed placement as part of our 'year in enterprise' scheme - the choice is yours.

Our emphasis on hands-on laboratory experience is combined with opportunities to develop a wide range of transferable skills, equipping you with the skills to stand out in the competitive job market. Some of the companies that employ our graduates include Astra Zeneca, GSK, Johnson Mattey, IBM, National Physical Laboratory, Pharmaserve, Kindeva.*

*Graduate Outcomes Survey (2021-2022 graduates, 15 months post-graduation)

You'll be taught in STEMLab - our £17M state-of-the-art facility featuring world-class chemistry and biosciences labs, equipment and learning facilities - giving you the chance to use industry-standard equipment and develop your practical laboratory skills. Your studies will be further enhanced by our £6m investment in refurbished laboratory space.