Study Field Outline
Pharmacy
Pharmacy studies the use of drugs and medicinal products, including their development, production, testing and quality assurance, plus measures to protect patients, to supply the general population with the required products, and to provide proper information on these products to all involved or working in the public health system. Studies include commercial aspects and special areas of the law.
Pharmaceutical engineering
Degree programmes address the technology and engineering of producing pharmaceuticals. Students acquire cross-disciplinary knowledge in the fields of chemistry and pharmacology, biology and pharmaceutical technology. They also study areas of engineering, such as industrial and mechanical engineering. Law and business management subjects round off the studies.
After receiving the licence to practice, the majority of pharmacists work as retail pharmacists or as pharmacists employed in a public-sector pharmacy. Outside the field of public-sector pharmacies, employment opportunities can be found in particular in hospitals, the pharmaceutical industry, in testing and examination institutions, in the armed forces, in public administration, at universities, in the cosmetics industry, in the washing agent and detergents industry, in the pesticides/pest control and fertilisers industry.
Studies at UniversitiesPharmacy
Basic study stage (4 semesters):
Lectures, seminars and practical courses in general, inorganic and organic chemistry, principles of pharmaceutical biology and of human biology, principles of physics, physical chemistry and drug morphology plus the principles of pharmaceutical analysis. During the pre-sessional periods/recess of the basic study stage, students are required to complete eight weeks of clinical practical training under the guidance of a dispensing chemist/pharmacist.
Main study stage (4 semesters):
Extension and consolidation studies in pharmaceutical fields, including pharmaceutical/medical chemistry, pharmaceutical biology, pharmaceutical engineering/biopharmacy, pharmacology and toxicology as well as clinical pharmacy.
Pharmaceutical examination:
The first and second examination sections are completed in the course of the student’s university studies, while the third is taken after completion of the practical training. Some universities offer postgraduate courses in Pharmacy “Diplom-Pharmazie” for students completing the second examination section that leads to the academic degree of “Diplom-Pharmazeut/in”.
Practical work experience:
After graduation, six months is spent working in a public dispensing pharmacy, in a hospital or a dispensing pharmacy of the German federal armed forces (whereby three months can also be spent working on a general hospital or a federal armed forces hospital ward), in the pharmaceutical industry, in a university institute or in another suitable scientific or research institute (including those belonging to the German federal armed forces) or in a drugs testing/inspection centre or a comparable institution (including those belonging to the German federal armed forces).
Continuing education and training:
According to the Chamber Laws of the individual federal states, holders of the Licence to Practise Pharmacy have the opportunity of engaging in continuing training in the field of officinal pharmacy, clinical pharmacy, drug information, pharmaceutical technology, toxicology and ecology, pharmaceutical analysis, theoretical and practical training, clinical chemistry and public health. The University of Bonn offers students completing the second section of the pharmaceutical examination an opportunity to take a postgraduate course leading to a Master of Drug Regulatory Affairs degree.
Study in Germany 