Core modules
We offer flexibility, allowing you to transfer between Chemistry degree courses at any time in the first two years as you develop your interests and future plans. (Please note, all course transfers are subject to meeting academic requirements and, for overseas students, are subject to UK visa regulations.)
In Years One and Two, you will study a range of key topics across inorganic, organic and physical Chemistry to provide a solid foundation across the main areas of Chemistry. You will also be supported in developing essential skills, including practical laboratory skills, coding and digital skills, intercultural communication to enhance your global employability, and research skills to spark your intellectual curiosity for the subject.
In Year Three, you will build on your experiences from Years One and Two, choosing optional modules that tailor your degree to suit your own interests. At this stage, you could find out how Chemistry is tackling the energy crisis, explore scientific writing, or discover how polymer synthesis can be used to design drug delivery systems.
Your final MChem year gives you the opportunity to further your skills set while actively making a real difference by working on a research project. Under the supervision of our internationally recognised academic staff, you might, for example: discover a significant improvement in solar cell technology, develop an electrochemical sensor for pharmaceutical analysis, a novel compound for cryopreservation of cells, a renewable polymer made from vegetables, an improved catalyst or an antibacterial agent extracted from plants.
In Year Four, you will also choose optional modules to support your project and create a wide base of knowledge in other advanced areas of chemistry. Representative optional module topics reflect the research expertise of our departments, including polymer materials, synthesis and catalysis, computational chemistry, electrochemistry, and analytical chemistry.
You may also wish to investigate an intercalated placement year to gain extensive professional experience (increasing the course duration to five years). Or, you could consider transferring to our MChem with Industrial Placement or MChem with International Placement at the end of Year Two.
RSC accreditation is subject to the appropriate choice of options in Years Two to Four. You will be supported by following an accredited course throughout your degree.
Important information
We are currently reviewing the third year curriculum of our Chemistry degrees from 2026 entry. Changes to core and optional modules go through the University's rigorous academic processes. As changes are confirmed, we will update the course information on this webpage. It is therefore very important that you check this webpage for the latest information before you apply and prior to accepting an offer. Sign up to receive updates.
Year One
This module is a self-contained and integrated introduction to models of chemical bonding. Beginning with the origins and history of chemistry, moving forwards through time to discuss contemporary chemical bonding models based on atomic and molecular orbital theory, this module will give students the fundamental tools to discuss structure and bonding across a wide variety of molecules.
The rate (kinetics) and energetics (thermodynamics) of chemical reactions are of central importance in all aspects of chemistry. By considering the energetics of a system it tells us if a process can happen, whilst the kinetics tell us how quickly. Many industrial processes rely on a thorough understanding of chemical change. This module will introduce the student to the fundamentals of chemical change at a level suitable for a Year 1 student.
This module applies fundamental concepts on structure and bonding to molecules and more complex structures in the form of real-world materials. Spanning solid-state materials, transition-metal complexes, macromolecules and soft materials, this module gives students the necessary tools to understand the structure and properties of molecules as a function of atomic properties, bonding and geometry.
This module will provide you with foundation knowledge of organic chemistry. It focuses on the fundamentals of the chemistry of carbon and how it applies to chemical biology as part of the chemistry of life.
You can study the theory of chemistry, but the laboratory is where science comes alive. You will put your chemistry knowledge to work with experiments that build your expertise in using scientific instrumentation, data collection, and data analysis. You will use new techniques and lab skills to synthesise chemical compounds, investigate key concepts and experimentally verify some of the chemical theories introduced in lectures. You will also have opportunities to combine established techniques, equipping you with the understanding and practical competence needed to develop your own research methods and problem-solving techniques.
Optional module in Year One:
This module equips students with essential skills and guidance to select and collaboratively tackle real-world research challenges. Developed in partnership with current students, A-level students, and secondary school teachers, and informed by data from the Royal Society of Chemistry, students will delve into research principles and tools while fostering a growth mindset with mentors from across the University. Throughout the course, they will actively engage in creating, completing, presenting, and reflecting upon their group project, enhancing their teamwork, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills.
Year Two
In this module, you will experience more hands-on laboratory investigations as the skills you have developed allow you to conduct more complicated multistep syntheses, learn advanced lab and instrumentation techniques, and take more control and ownership of your work. By the end of this module, you will be able to plan new experiments, set up and monitor instrumentation to record your results, and characterise and assess reactions using spectroscopy alongside other sophisticated techniques. You will also learn to process and present your results in statistical, graphical and written form.
This module will introduce the students to the physical origins of many of the analytical spectroscopic tools in use in a modern chemistry laboratory. The module will discuss several spectroscopic methods which utilize a range of electromagnetic wavelengths, from radio waves to UV/visible light, highlighting the different types of molecular processes probed. The module will introduce some of the quantum-mechanical models which underpin much of our understanding of spectroscopy (including harmonic oscillator and the rigid rotor), and their application to real-life spectroscopy. Student’s knowledge of molecular symmetry and group theory will be developed by discussing its role in molecular structure and bonding, and the interpretation of electronic and vibrational spectra. The module will also provide students with a working knowledge of the various relaxation pathways available to electronically-excited molecules. In addition, the module will link conceptually Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) to other discussed types of spectroscopy. The fundamentals of one-dimensional NMR spectroscopy will be introduced in the context of proton and carbon and then expanded to other nuclei in the periodic table. Finally, two-dimensional NMR will be qualitatively introduced.
This module builds on core concepts covered in Year 1 to understand more advanced organic reactions, expanding the synthetic and mechanistic chemistry toolbox and enabling basic design principles, based on retrosynthetic analysis, for the synthesis of simple organic molecules to be understood. The module is split into a number of topics: Aromatic and heterocyclic chemistry, palladium-catalysed cross coupling, alkene chemistry, oxidation and reduction reactions, conformational analysis, carbonyl and enolate chemistry, elimination reactions and physical organic chemistry. Included will also be simple retrosynthesis and synthetic strategies, and industrial applications.
This module will consider chemical bonding in compounds of elements from various parts of the Periodic Table to illustrate how properties arise from their bonding and electronic structure. Complexes of transition-metals will be explored, examining their stability, description of the binding of ligands, mechanism of ligand substitution, and organometallic complexes will be introduced. Solid-state materials will be illustrated using oxides of transition-metals and concepts of crystallography and diffraction used to show how the structure of solids is determined. This will lead to consideration of the electronic structure of solids, including band structure and conductivity.
Macromolecules are central to life. Nature has created natural macromolecules such as cellulose to enable trees and plants to form and DNA and RNA for the evolution and coding of life. Scientists have developed synthetic macromolecules to be used in wide range of materials owing to the physical properties of macromolecules. This module will cover the synthetic concepts and structures of both synthetic and natural macromolecules as well as discussing their use in our daily lives.
Optional modules in Year Two:
The aims of the module are to introduce students to the principles of drug discovery, explaining the stages involved in the drug discovery process, and introducing the major types of biological targets for drug action, and case studies. The module includes an introduction to computational approaches to drug development, and an introduction to antibody-based drugs and the application of antibody technology for medical diagnostics.
This module will introduce students to the critically important role chemists are playing in humanity’s transition to a sustainable way of life and the primary motivations for this transition. The challenges posed by anthropogenic climate change, environmental pollution and the limited supply of natural resources critical to our current way of life will be considered. Sustainable solutions to these challenges for which chemistry is particularly relevant will be considered, including in the areas of sustainable agriculture, tackling water pollution (whilst also meeting growing demand for drinking water), affordable clean energy for all, tackling atmospheric pollution and sustainable chemical feedstocks for our material needs. The topics covered are aligned with the United Nations 17 sustainable development goals, and so this module will serve to highlight the important role chemists are playing in enabling a sustainable future for all, opening their eyes to the broad range of opportunities their chemical education presents for them to contribute to these exciting topics at a critical early stage in their degree.
Year Three
Here, you will gain the advanced knowledge to allow you to understand and apply empirical rules and models related to the reactions of organic molecules, complex pericyclic reactions, intramolecular cyclisation processes, rearrangement reactions of reactive intermediates, and reactions creating new stereogenic centres by either substrate, reagent or catalyst control.
This advanced module will help you to understand the issues affecting industrial catalytic reactions. You will study the application of organometallic chemistry and physical chemistry (particularly kinetics), drawing together aspects of this work developed in year two, and extending your understanding to the types of reactions and catalysis used widely in chemical industries, such as those concerned with petrochemicals, polymers, fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Here, you will meet two advanced topics in physical chemistry: interfacial chemistry and molecular modelling. You will study a range of surface and interfacial processes, including both solid and liquid interfaces, and learn about advanced experimental methods for characterising them. You will learn the key concepts in molecular dynamics simulations, including periodic boundaries, integration algorithms and thermodynamic ensembles. A significant aspect of this module is to demonstrate the importance of surface processes in chemistry and the borders of chemical engineering, biomedical science, materials science and physics. As well as standard lectures, these aims will be supported by experimental laboratory sessions which have an emphasis on designing and implementing experiments.
You will focus on the theoretical and practical aspects of instrumental analytical techniques, including data generation, acquisition, interpretation, instrumentation and state-of-the-art applications. You will consider the techniques of chromatography, mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in both lecture and workshops. As part of your studies, you will learn to test hypotheses, use databases and software independently, analyse your findings and improve your ability to communicate these in written form.
You will build on your previous practical chemistry work by choosing two further optional practical modules. Your studies will see you using a range of resources to design synthetic and measurement experiments, and performing advanced synthetic techniques such as column chromatography, manipulation of air-sensitive compounds and emulsion polymerisation. You will complete this module with a poster presentation on a piece of published research work.
Year Four
You will carry out an extended research project under the supervision of an academic in an area reflecting your interests. You will become competent in original research practice, including evaluating literature, designing practical or computational experiments, analysing and assessing your results and drawing conclusions to set against the current field. You will learn to present your findings in discussion and debate, and to complete report-writing to a high standard.
Optional modules
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Examples of Year Three or Four optional modules may include:
