Pharmacy - State Examination

The pharmacy program provides a broad scientific education, ranging from the fundamentals of biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and physiology to subjects such as molecular and cell biology, pharmacology, pathophysiology, and clinical pharmacy.
Pharmaceutical biology teaches the fundamentals of biology, because only a deep understanding of cellular, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms enables pharmacists to understand the effects of drugs and assess possible side effects.
Pharmaceutical technology has a unique status in Heidelberg. The technical-scientific and medical-pharmacological orientation of the teaching ensures a balance that reflects the importance of drugs.
The main task of pharmaceutical chemistry is the development of active ingredients. The teaching of pharmaceutical chemistry—synthesis, instrumental and chemical analysis of drugs and active ingredients—comprises a large part of the field of pharmacy.
The training of pharmacists in the field of pharmacology and clinical pharmacy focuses on the therapeutic properties of substances and pharmacokinetics in humans.
 

The program is organized by the Institute for Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology in Heidelberg, a modern, interdisciplinary center for drug research, and is supported in cooperation with medical departments.
Pharmaceutical training with the aim of obtaining a license to practice is regulated nationwide in Germany by the Licensing Regulations for Pharmacists.
Heidelberg is the first university in Germany to no longer conduct the first state examination as a central examination, but rather as examinations throughout the four-semester basic study period.
This is followed by four semesters of advanced study, during which knowledge of core pharmaceutical subjects and related medical subjects is deepened. The second part of the pharmaceutical examination concludes the university education with an oral examination in the main subjects.
A total of twelve months of practical training is followed by the third part of the state examination, which completes the training as a pharmacist.

Graduates of the state examination program in pharmacy have a solid foundation of biological, chemical, technological, and pharmacological knowledge as well as important key competencies. In addition to broad subject knowledge, the professional qualification objectives include experimental techniques and a wide range of methods in molecular biology, biochemistry, pharmaceutical technology, and pharmaceutical chemistry, enabling graduates to plan, carry out, document, and present projects on topics in the pharmaceutical sciences largely independently.

The subject-specific skills that graduates of the state examination program in pharmacy have acquired in the process of acquiring, applying, and critically reflecting on scientific content and methods are also relevant in many ways across disciplines.

Graduates are capable of teamwork, time management, and integrative and creative thinking, and have the competence to work on a pharmaceutical research problem using scientific methods within a given time frame. This includes the ability to understand the subject matter as a whole and to apply scientific methods and findings experimentally.