The UCAS Application process

The Reading School of Pharmacy recruits 100-110 students per year onto the MPharm programme and receives approximately 700 applications each year. After submitting your application through UCAS, we receive your application 2/3 weeks later and make an assessment of your application based on your qualifications, work experience, personal statement and referee statement. We then invite all eligible students living in Great Britain to a UCAS visit day and interview. The interview is used to inform us regarding making you an offer of a place and the offer conditions. For students living further afield an offer decision is made without interview, although we sometimes contact you by Email to verify details given or missing from your application form.

The UCAS visit day

The Visit Day gives you the opportunity to get a closer insight into the Reading School of Pharmacy and gives us the opportunity to get to know you. If you cannot make the visit day assigned to you, we can provide you with an alternative date and suggest that you contact us as soon as possible after receiving your invitation to interview.

All of our visit days have a set programme for parents and applicants that include talks about “Life at the University of Reading” and “The Reading School of Pharmacy” presented by staff and current students, as well as campus and department tours. Prospective applicants attend a one-to-one interview with an academic member of staff and current MPharm students act as your guides and are happy to answer your questions with a student perspective. Within one week of your visit to one of our UCAS visit days you will receive a letter from us, which will inform you about our decision to advise the University faculty office to offer (or not) a place on our MPharm programme.

The Interview

The interview is an important part of the programme, but should not be considered frightening. It is a one-to-one interview with an academic member of the pharmacy staff and provides both you and us with the opportunity to find out about each other. You can ask any question about the MPharm programme or Reading University and Town in general. You should note however that the interviewer will not be able to inform you if your application has been successful as such a decision is not made entirely from the interview process.

Tips for your interview:

• You should maintain a professional approach throughout your interview.
• You should be able to communicate your motivation to study pharmacy and have researched the profession to be able to provide an informed view of Pharmacy.
• You will be asked simple maths and chemistry/biology questions.
• Please use this interview as an opportunity to ask as many questions as you like about our MPharm programme and the School of Pharmacy.