UCL School of Pharmacy

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School of Pharmacy students

Extramural Placements

MPharm students at the School of Pharmacy can undertake an extramural research project during Course F1. The placement lasts for 12 weeks and is unpaid.

Extramural Placement Coordinator
Dr Gary Parkinson
Senior Lecturer
Department of Pharmaceutical & Biological Chemistry
Tel  020 7753 5933
Email

Types of extramural placements available

• A placement arranged by the School of Pharmacy at an ERASMUS partner university in Europe. You will be eligible for a special EU grant. The amount depends on European Commission's allocation, but is generally in the range of €800 - €1,000. 

• A placement at a partner university outside of the ERASMUS area. Students receive a School of Pharmacy grant, which is pegged to the Access to Learning Fund.

• An industrial placement arranged by the School of Pharmacy. These are organised by Dr Simon Gaisford and are subject to interview by the company. There are bursaries available for overseas students only, though home students receiving student support may apply to the Access to Learning Fund for help with extra costs such as train fare. There are placements available at:
  

  • Merck Sharp & Dohme at Hoddesdon, Herts

• An overseas placement that you arrange yourself. Some students found places on their own by searching the web for research groups doing research in an area they were interested in, while others found places via School of Pharmacy academics who have personal contacts abroad. You may find the following internet resources useful when doing your research:
  

  • findaschool.org
  • petersons.com
  • gradschools.com
  • studyabroad.com
  • fulbright.co.uk
• You should get approval from Dr Gary Parkinson before contacting research groups directly. If you are given the go ahead, you should email a formal cover letter and CV to the head of the department or research centre at the overseas university asking whether you can apply for an ‘unpaid internship’ or ‘unpaid placement’, involving data collection and analysis. Not all applications will get a response so you may need to approach several research groups.

• A placement you arrange yourself in the UK. In past years students have organised their own placements in industry, university research labs and hospital departments of pharmacy. Please note that it is NOT possible to do a hospital placement in London via the extramural scheme; this must be done as part of an internal Pharmacy Practice research project.

Application procedure

• You must complete the Extramural Placement application form and submit this on Moodle. The application deadline has already expired for a placement in Spring 2014. You can however submit a late application, which will then be considered by Dr Parkinson and Mr Widemann.
• You will be notified if you are required to attend an interview.
• You will be notified as quickly as possible if you have been granted approval to undertake an extramural placement.
• If you are applying for a placement organised by the School of Pharmacy, final approval will be subject to acceptance by the host institution.

• If you are planning to arrange your own placement, you must wait until Dr Parkinson gives you the go ahead to begin contacting external organisations. Once you have his approval, you will need to submit to Registry the following information about your host organisation:

  • name of organization (eg university, hospital, research institute, pharmaceutical company)
  • name of supervisor
  • brief description of project
  • description of facilities available to you
• Late applications will be considered but this will delay the process.