College of Pharmaceutical Sciences

The College of Pharmaceutical Sciences (CPS) is a three-year international Bachelor's programme with courses at Honours level in Drug Development, in which you will be trained how new drugs for diseases such as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s can be discovered and developed. CPS is fully taught in English and therefore open to international students.

Contribute to human health 

There is a great medical need for new drugs. Is it your dream to contribute to the development of these new medicines that could improve the health of many people? Do you like having the freedom to choose your own approach when presented with an assignment? Do you thrive whilst studying in small groups together with other motivated students from different nationalities? If so, studying CPS might be just perfect for you! 

Drug development 

At the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, you’ll learn what’s needed to develop new drugs. You’ll need to consider the possible target for the drug in the body, the active ingredient structure, as well as the best route of administration of the medicine and how the effectiveness and safety of the new drug should be tested on the patient. To develop a new drug many disciplines come together, such as biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences, chemistry and biology. 

Challenging educational approach 

As a drug designer you need more than theoretical knowledge. You must also be skilled in the lab, as well as have the ability to define a research question and design a plan to respond to it. In addition, you’ll need to collaborate with a variety of professionals and present your results in a scientific journal, or sometimes at an international conference. Therefore, each course also involves a group project, in which you’ll work with fellow students on real-life biomedical problems. As such, you’ll learn to apply the theory of pharmaceutical science to creatively solve these problems.

The small scale of the CPS study programme creates a real community of enthusiastic and driven students who push one another to a higher level.

Why in Utrecht

• Small-scale education: due to the small scale of the programme and close-knit community with a maximum of 60 students, you’re also likely to receive additional support and motivation from other CPS students and peers.  
• Project-based learning: projects on real-life biomedical or pharmaceutical problems
• Room for creativity and own initiative: freedom to pursue your personal interests
• Research environment: many lab sessions, education by scientists and visits to research institutes and companies
• International community: taught fully in English: studying with international students
• Studying at Utrecht University means studying at one of the world's best universities according to various rankings.

Studie in Cijfers

Would you like to compare this programme with the national average? View the results of Studie in Cijfers (in Dutch). Please note that the results are combined with the results from the Dutch Farmacie programme. Source: Studiekeuze123