Our course provides you with a comprehensive theoretical and practical understanding of chemistry, and prepares you for a professional life in the ever-changing environment of 21st century chemistry. To achieve these goals, our course integrates the teaching of chemistry foundations with application of chemistry principles and techniques in a conceptually novel fashion by systematically using examples taken from the very broad range of chemical and biomedical research and practice at King’s.
Our course starts with a coverage of the principles of physical, organic and inorganic chemistry, with additional maths to ensure you can successfully handle advanced physical and computational chemistry. Our course also incorporates an integrated laboratory course that brings together the different strands of chemistry and applies them to a range of chemical systems. In your third year, you will choose from a range of specialised modules in order to investigate particular aspects of the application of chemical principles to contemporary global and industrial challenges. Optional short research projects may also be available as part of the Research Methods module. These projects will be carried out at King’s or in an appropriate partner institution, including one of the hospitals affiliated with King’s, giving you the opportunity to gain relevant professional work experience. Your fourth year will be dominated by a six-month research project to give you the opportunity to experience and test your research potential.
Our academics have expertise in a number of research areas, including the development of the full range of modern in vivo imaging techniques, inorganic anti-cancer drugs, enzyme biomimics, biomolecular spectroscopy, computational methods, materials science and nanotechnology, pharmaceutical sciences from drug discovery to drug delivery, analytical, forensic and environmental science, and a wide range of developmental and cell biology.
Flexibility in course choice
Students on the BSc and MSci courses do the same first three years, which includes project- driven laboratory practicals in Year 3 (introduced in Year 2). Students wanting a general Chemistry degree, for instance to progress to teaching, journalism, management and similar careers, will usually opt for the BSc degree. However if you want a full-research experience that introduces you to current areas of intensive chemical research you should choose the MSci degree, which involves an additional year. To do this you would normally require marks in Year 3 equivalent to a 2:1 or 1st class degree.
Transfer between these two degrees is possible up to and including the third year. Transfer from the Chemistry MSci/ BSc degrees, to the Chemistry with Biomedicine MSci/ BSc degrees, is also possible up to and including the first term of the second year.
Students on this degree are also able to transfer to the corresponding ‘with a Year’s Professional Placement’ degree programme after their second year provided they meet the academic requirements and gain one of the competitive year-long internships.
A Study Abroad pathway is available for students to transfer into and spend their third year, or a semester of their third year, studying at a partner institution before returning to King’s to study the fourth year. Students must obtain an average of 60 per cent in the first year of their programme, and sustain an average of 59 per cent in the second year to progress to Study Abroad in the third year.
Teaching
Teaching is led by the Chemistry Department. You will also be taught by chemists whose chemical expertise is embedded within different faculties of King’s.
You are expected spend approximately 10 hours work per credit for each module you attend in your degree, e.g. 150 hours work for a 15 credit module. These hours cover every aspect of the module: lectures, workshops, laboratory sessions, independent study, coursework and preparation for examinations.
Assessment
You will be primarily assessed through written examination at the end of each year, but also through in-course tests and coursework.
One of the characteristics of our courses is the variety of assessment methods across all years of study, including essays, poster design and presentation, short talks and reports. The nature of assessment varies by module.