Merger: School of Pharmacy and UCL

The School of Pharmacy Council have given their final approval on the decision to merge with UCL.

The School will become part of UCL Faculty of Life Sciences in January 2012.

Professor Anthony Smith, Dean of the School of Pharmacy, said: "The potential of this merger is truly exciting. Within UCL, the School will be at the heart of Europe's largest grouping of biomedical research, including the new The Francis Crick Institute.  With The Crick's focus on translational biomedical research, taking research from the laboratory all the way through to the patient, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical sciences are ideally placed to make an enormously significant contribution.  Clinical experience (already an important part of the MPharm programme) will be supported and the options extended through the UCL Medical School's clinical placement experience. Over time we also look forward to introduce opportunities for pharmacy, medical and other health-related students to work together in inter-professional teams in patient-centred clinical placements. Becoming part of UCL will admit our students into one of the best student experiences in the UK with access to UCL-wide libraries and IT resources and to the Student Union with the comprehensive social, sporting and welfare facilities that it offers. I am confident that The School of Pharmacy will thrive in this new environment and am looking forward to the next stage in its long history."

Commenting on the merger Professor Mary Collins, Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences, said: "There is strong complementarity between the research and education at the School of Pharmacy and UCL. The next few years will bring some exciting new collaborations."

Professor Sir John Tooke, Vice Provost (Health) and Head of the UCL School of Life & Medical Sciences, added: "The merger builds on many existing collaborations with the Faculty of Life Sciences and beyond, and will capitalise on the complementary strengths of both institutions. Our mutual ambition is to realise the world class potential of pharmacy research and educational programmes through exploiting such synergies."