Key facts

Overview

Oxford has made a major contribution to modern molecular medicine and our senior scientists have provided significant insights to our understanding of cancer, diabetes, and cardiac, haematological and infectious diseases. There is now an opportunity to harness these advances and translate them into therapeutic benefits for patients.

The Department of Oncology and the Department for Continuing Education’s CPD Centre offer a part-time MSc in Experimental Therapeutics that brings together some of Oxford's leading clinicians and scientists to deliver an advanced modular programme designed for those in full-time employment, both in the UK and overseas.

Programme details

The MSc in Experimental Therapeutics is a part-time course consisting of six modules and a work-based research project and dissertation. The programme is normally complete in two to three years. Students are full members of the University of Oxford and are matriculated as members of an Oxford College.

The modules in this programme can also be taken as individual short courses.

Programme modules:

• The Structure of Clinical Trials and Experimental Therapeutics
• Drug Development, Pharmacokinetics and Imaging
• Pharmacodynamics, Biomarkers and Personalised Therapy
• Adverse Drug Reactions, Drug Interactions, and Pharmacovigilance
• How to do Research on Therapeutic Interventions: Protocol Preparation
• Biological Therapeutics

Selection criteria

Staff

Professor Leonard Seymour

Role: Director

Professor Len Seymour is a world authority on genetic medicine, with over 120 publications and several patents. Len is Professor of Gene...more Therapies, and Director of the Section of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Oxford’s Department of Oncology. He sits on a number of editorial and scientific advisory boards, was the founding President of the British Society for Gene Therapy, and is the current General Secretary of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy.

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Dr Jeffrey K. Aronson

Role: Tutor

Dr Jeffrey K. Aronson is Reader in Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Oxford and Honorary Consultant Physician and Consultant Clinical...more Pharmacologist in the Oxford Radclife Hospitals Trust. His research interests include all aspects of clinical pharmacology, especially adverse drug reactions and interactions and the control of ion transport systems in response to drugs and diseases.

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Professor Stefan Knapp

Role: Tutor

Professor Stefan Knapp is leading the Phosphorylation Dependent Signalling group within the SGC. Research activities are focused at the...more production, purification, functional characterization and structure determination of human kinases and phosphatases of medical relevance.

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Dr Grant D Vallance

Role: Tutor

Dr Grant D. Vallance originally hails from New Zealand and has degrees in Biochemistry and Bioethics from the University of Otago. He has lived in...more Oxford for the last 12 years. Since coming here he has gained a Ph. D. in ethics and the philosophy of science from the Open University, and been involved in five different NHS Research Ethics Committees. Recently, he has moved on from his clinical trial coordination work, and is now employed in information management within the NHS in conjunction with teaching research ethics to students, scientists, and clinicians. close

Course aims

The aim of the MSc programme is to provide students with the necessary training and practical experience to enable them to understand the principles that underpin clinical research, and to enable them to translate that understanding into good clinical and research practice.

By the end of the MSc programme, students will be able to understand the following core principles:

• Development, marketing and regulations of drugs
• Pharmaceutical factors that affect drug therapy
• Pharmacokinetics, pharmacogenetics and pharmacodynamics
• Adverse drug reactions, drug interactions, and pharmacovigilance
• Designing phase I, II and III clinical trials for a range of novel therapeutic interventions (and imaging agents).
• Application of statistics to medicine
• Laboratory assays used to support trial end-points
• Use of non-invasive imaging in drug development
• Application of analytical techniques

What will you gain from attending the programme?

At the end of the programme you will be able to:

• demonstrate a knowledge of the principles, methods and techniques for solving clinical research problems and translate this into good clinical and research practice
• apply skills gained in techniques and practical experience from across the medical and biological sciences
• develop skills in managing research-based work in experimental therapeutics
• carry out an extended research project involving a literature review, problem specification and analysis in experimental therapeutics and write a short dissertation

Guidance from the UK Royal College of Physician's Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine

The Faculty have confirmed that if enrolled for Pharmaceutical Medicine Specialty Training (PMST), trainees may be able to use knowledge provided by Experimental Therapeutics modules to cover aspects of a module of the PMST curriculum. Trainees are advised to discuss this with their Educational Supervisor.

Experimental Therapeutics modules may also be used to provide those pursuing the Faculty's Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine (DPM) with the necessary knowledge required to cover the Diploma syllabus. Applicants for the DPM exam are advised to read the DPM syllabus and rules and regulations.

Members of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine who are registered in the Faculty's CPD scheme can count participation in Experimental Therapeutics modules towards their CPD record. Non-members may wish to obtain further advice about CPD credit from their Royal College or Faculty.

Assessment methods

To complete the MSc, students will need to:

• Attend the 6 modules and undertake assessed written assignments for each module.
• Complete a dissertation on a topic chosen in consultation with a supervisor and the Programme Director.

Dissertation
The dissertation will be founded on a work-based research project that will build on the material studied in the taught modules. The dissertation should normally not exceed 15,000 words.

The project will be supervised by an academic supervisor and employer-based mentor.

Level and demands

The course will appeal to health professionals from a variety of backgrounds:

• Qualified doctors
• Specialist Registrars in Clinical Pharmacology or in training for other medical sub-specialities
• Clinical research fellows in other specialities
• Pharmacists
• Nurses
• Graduates working in the pharmaceutical industry

Teaching methods

The class-based modules will include a period of preparatory study, a week of intensive face-to-face lectures and tutorials, followed by a period for assignment work. Attendance at modules will be a requirement for study. Some non-classroom activities will be provided at laboratory facilities elsewhere in the University. The course will include taught material on research skills. A virtual learning environment (VLE) will provide between-module support.

The taught modules will include group work, discussions, guest lectures, and interaction and feedback with tutors and lecturers. Practical work will develop the students' knowledge and understanding of the subject.

Accommodation

Accommodation is available at the Rewley House Residential Centre, within the Department for Continuing Education, in central Oxford. The comfortable, en-suite, study-bedrooms are rated 3-star, and come with free high-speed internet access and TV. Guests can take advantage of the excellent dining facilities and common room bar, where they may relax and network with others on the programme.

Payment

By submitting your application, you are agreeing to our terms & conditions. Registration will be confirmed only when payment has been received in accordance with the Contractual and Financial Information.

Fee rates

The fee rates listed are for the academic year 2012-2013 and will increase annually.

You will be required to pay an annual award fee for every academic year (or part-year) that you attend the course, and to pay module or dissertation fees as they become due. Fees must be paid in accordance with the Terms and Conditions [see below] for this programme. All amounts are in pounds sterling.

Fee rates for the academic year 2012-13

Annual award fee:

• £1,200 for Home/EU students
• £4,950 for Overseas students (see note 1)

Module fee: £1,500 (per taught module)
Dissertation fee: £4,500 (equivalent to 3 module fees)

Illustration for MSc programme (assumes completion within two years)

Home/EU

• 2 x annual award fee = £2,400
• 6 x module fee (6 taught modules) = £9,000
• 1 x dissertation fee = £4,500
• Total: £15,900

Overseas

• 2 x annual award fee = £9,900
• 6 x module fee (6 taught modules) = £9,000
• 1 x dissertation fee = £4,500
• Total: £23,400

Stand-alone module fee rate

• Stand-alone module fee: £1,890

Notes

1. The fee rates listed are for the academic year shown, and you should be aware that these rates will increase annually, so students attending for more than one year should expect the total to be higher than is shown in the Illustration. The exact amount will depend on the fee rates set annually, and upon the years you are in attendance; these are normally published well before the start of each academic year, but for your own budgetary purposes you may wish to estimate a 5% annual increase on fee rates.

2. See the Oxford University website for Home/EU and Overseas classification of students for fees purposes.

3. MSc students are matriculated and are full members of the Collegiate University; college fees are included within the MSc programme fees and are paid to the colleges on a student’s behalf.

4. Funding: Students applying for the MSc in Experimental Therapeutics are eligible to apply for a Clarendon Fund Scholarship. See also our financial assistance page for other opportunities.

Scholarships

Details of funding opportunities, including grants, bursaries, loans, scholarships and benefit information are available on our financial assistance page.

Modules in this programme

The following modules can be studied as part of this programme:

• Health Sciences (6)
• Adverse Drug Reactions, Drug Interactions, and Pharmacovigilance
• Biological Therapeutics
• Drug Development, Pharmacokinetics and Imaging
• How to do Research on Therapeutic Interventions: Protocol Preparation
• Pharmacodynamics, Biomarkers and Personalised Therapy
• The Structure of Clinical Trials and Experimental Therapeutics

Apply for this course