Course overview

Please note the below deadline dates for this course:

Monday 15 June 2026 for RPL applications
Friday 31 July 2026 for overall application deadline

The Postgraduate Diploma in Mental Health Pharmacy is designed for practising pharmacists who want to advance their clinical, professional, and leadership capabilities in mental health. Aligned with the four pillars of practice - clinical practice, leadership and management, education, and research - this programme develops confident, evidence‑based practitioners who can make meaningful contributions at patient, team, and service levels.

Assessment is authentic and practice‑focused, with students demonstrating their skills and progression through a structured portfolio of clinical competence. Developing specialist knowledge is assessed through written coursework with options available to allow students to submit work related to their own professional trajectory.

Graduates can choose to continue their academic journey by progressing to a research MSc, further strengthening their expertise and career opportunities in this specialist field.

The course is accredited by the College of Mental Health Pharmacy.

"I recently have been appointed to a new post as an Adult ADHD Specialist Pharmacist. This is a really exciting job as I'll be involved in shaping and developing the service going forward. I'd like to say thank you to the team as this appointment was made possible for me by having the Postgraduate Diploma.

Sarah Walter

Postgraduate Diploma in Mental Health Pharmacy

Adult ADHD Specialist Pharmacist

Why Mental Health Pharmacy at Aston University?

Accredited qualification

Accredited by the College of Mental Health Pharmacy

Specialist knowledge

Written, taught and assessed by specialist mental health pharmacists

Industry links

Gain eligibility for specialist clinical mental health posts in the NHS

Course description

Mental Health Pharmacy PgDip

Our Mental Health Pharmacy PgDip at Aston will equip you with the skills, insights, and confidence required to become an outstanding clinical mental health specialist.

What we will provide
You will learn from a highly experienced team of mental health pharmacy specialists, clinical academics, and educators who work closely with NHS services across the UK. Our teaching is grounded in real clinical practice, shaped by current service needs, and enriched by strong partnerships with clinicians and professional bodies. We provide a supportive online learning environment with interactive teaching, case‑based discussions, and personalised feedback designed to help you grow confidently into advanced mental health practice.

What you will provide
As a postgraduate learner, you will bring curiosity, commitment, and a willingness to challenge your own assumptions. Success on this programme requires a growth mindset, active engagement with complex clinical material, and readiness to apply critical thinking to real‑world scenarios. You’ll contribute your own clinical experiences to discussions, collaborate with peers, and bring the ambition and drive needed to progress towards specialist mental health pharmacy roles.

What skills we teach
This programme equips you with the knowledge and skills required to practise as a competent clinical mental health pharmacy professional. Through a rigorous, professionally aligned curriculum and a portfolio of assessed clinical competence, you will develop the ability to provide safe, person‑centred pharmaceutical care for people with mental illness across a range of settings.

By engaging fully with the learning, feedback, and authentic assessments, you will enhance transferable skills including:

Independent, self-directed study
Advanced clinical problem-solving
Effective time management
High-quality information retrieval, synthesis, evaluation, and communication
Critical appraisal and evidence-informed decision‑making

Career prospects
The PGDip in Mental Health Pharmacy is highly regarded by employers. It is widely recognised for progression into specialist and advanced mental health pharmacy roles, including roles in community mental health teams, inpatient services, crisis teams, and early intervention services. Graduates may also progress to the MSc in Mental Health Pharmacy Practice, opening further opportunities in advanced clinical practice, education, and leadership.

How you will learn

This fully online programme is designed to fit around your clinical role, giving you the flexibility to study at your own pace while applying your learning directly to practice. You’ll access all course content through our virtual learning environment, Blackboard, which brings together engaging materials including pre‑recorded lectures, interactive activities, guided reading, e‑journals and specialist resources.

Each module combines structured online learning with self‑directed study, helping you develop the advanced clinical judgement and critical thinking expected at postgraduate level. You’ll also complete a practice‑based portfolio across the year, enabling you to evidence your developing competence in your professional setting.

Our teaching approach blends academic expertise with real‑world clinical insight, ensuring your learning is authentic, relevant and immediately applicable to your work as a mental health pharmacy professional.

What you will learn

You will develop the specialist knowledge, clinical skills and confidence needed to deliver safe, effective and evidence‑based care for people with mental illness. The programme strengthens your expertise in psychotropic medicines and prepares you to contribute meaningfully at both patient and service level as part of a multidisciplinary healthcare team.

Course objectives

Work collaboratively with service users and other healthcare professionals to plan person-focused, safe and effective specialist pharmaceutical care.
Synthesise knowledge to evaluate and formulate pharmaceutical care plans in a multidisciplinary context and across a range of diagnoses/clinical scenarios.
Analyse clinical information (including, but not limited to laboratory tests, signs and symptoms, clinical notes) to make decisions in potentially complex clinical scenarios.
Critically read and evaluate literature sources to inform future professional practice.
Recognise influences on prescribing at service level to evaluate and plan care beyond the level of the individual patient.
Effectively communicate the evidence base for the safe, effective and economic use of medicines to a range of people including other healthcare professionals and service users.
Critically reflect on practice at individual level and beyond to inform future professional development .

Modules

Taught stage

Taught stage modules

In the taught stage, you will study the following core modules:

Module Title	Credits
Specialist mental health pharmacy practice and person-centred care	15
Developing leadership skills through evaluation and research	15
Pharmacy practice in more specialist areas of mental health	15
Education and training in mental health pharmacy	15
Portfolio of mental health pharmacy clinical practice	0

Total	60

We may update our courses to reflect best practices and academic developments. If we do, we’ll let you know of any changes at the earliest opportunity by updating our course webpages. If you have already received an offer, we’ll write to you directly to let you know of the changes.

Entry requirements

Postgraduate qualifications

Applicants should normally have successfully completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Mental Health Therapeutics at Aston University, achieving a pass overall. Applicants holding other relevant clinical pharmacy postgraduate qualifications may also be considered and will be assessed on a case‑by‑case basis via a formal application for Recognition of Prior Learning.

If you have any admissions queries please contact our Admissions Team.

Employment

To join this programme, you must be working clinically in a specialist mental health role with regular access to service users, carers, and multidisciplinary team members. You will need access to a sufficient range of clinical cases to meet the portfolio requirements, including exposure to multiple mental health diagnoses (such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorders and others) and a variety of complexity factors (for example co‑morbid physical illness, adherence challenges, or older adult/perinatal considerations). This is essential to ensure you can meet the programme’s requirements by gathering evidence across the range of diagnoses and complexity factors needed for the portfolio of practice.

If you are unsure whether your current role provides adequate breadth of experience, you are encouraged to contact the Programme Director for advice before applying.

This course is part of the Aston Pharmacy School which sits within the College of Health and Life Sciences.

Timeline of application

Application is submitted.
New applications are picked up by the Postgraduate Admissions Team.
Postgraduate Admissions Team staff check if we have all the documents we need, if anything is missing, we send an email to the applicant to request the missing information. If we have all the information, we need we make a decision. 'Offer', 'Reject' or 'Send to tutor for review' are the possible options at this stage.
If it is an offer, we will decide if it is conditional or unconditional.
Offer is issued via email and the applicant is given 4 weeks to accept the offer. Date is entered into the offer email.
Accept the offer following the instructions in the offer letter and making deposit payment/providing funding evidence.
A place on the course is not secure until we have received the deposit payment or the sponsor letter and this must be by the deadline stated in the email.
Once an offer has been accepted fully, the system is updated to reflect this. Approximately six weeks before the programme starts applicants who have fully accepted are sent their enrolment email from regenrolment@aston.ac.uk the email has their username and password. The applicant then completes the enrolment steps and student support before they can be given access to the modules that they will study.

International students

Aston University is a diverse, close community and welcomes international students on many of our undergraduate programmes. Students from over 120 countries choose to study with us every year. Based in the centre of Birmingham, Aston is not only a great place to study, it’s also a great place to live.

Qualifications in your country

For details of equivalent qualifications in your country, use our area pages below:

English language requirements

Applicants whose first language is not English will be required to provide evidence of an English language qualification.

English language requirements

How to apply

Aston University provides a range of opportunities for international students to join our community and study on our campus. A key part of our strategy is our relationships with teaching partners, providing multiple pathways to Aston.

Aston’s professional work placements can improve your chance of securing a graduate job. Placements give you experience, confidence and opportunities and, as an Aston student, you’ll be better prepared for your future career. One of the great things about Aston is our focus on employability. Our close links with businesses, industries and professions make this possible.

Find out more about applying

Pathway Programmes

If you don’t meet our entry requirements, we have a range of pathway programmes offered by our partner, ONCAMPUS Aston, which you can complete to progress onto one of our degrees.

Masters Foundation programmes

If you don’t meet our entry requirements, we have a range of pathway programmes offered by our partner, ONCAMPUS Aston, which you can complete to progress onto one of our degrees.

Speak to our Admissions Team

If you have any questions about the application process please get in touch with our postgraduate admissions team:

Email: pgadmissions@aston.ac.uk

Read our guide to applying

Fees and scholarships

Course fees

UK students
(2026/27)

Annual tuition fees:

£4,200

International students
(2026/27)

Annual tuition fees:

£4,200

More information on fees

The United Kingdom government has confirmed that European Union (EU), other European Economic Area (EEA) and Swiss nationals commencing academic courses in England from August 2021 will no longer be charged the same tuition rates as UK students.

Tuition fees for students are reviewed annually and may increase in subsequent years in line with inflation linked to the Retail Price Index (RPI) to take account of the University’s increased costs of delivering the Programme. Any such increase shall always be in accordance with the law. When undertaking a placement year, a placement year fee applies.

More information on fees

Scholarships

At Aston University we are committed to supporting the most talented and hardworking students to achieve their potential by providing a range of scholarships to help lower tuition and living costs.

Explore scholarships for UK students

Explore scholarships for international students

Assessment

The course is assessed entirely through coursework, there is no exam. This course is worth 60 credits, with each credit equivalent to 10 learning hours. These learning hours include engagement with the learning materials which includes but is not limited to pre-recorded lectures, module meetings, online activity, reading, other independent study, reflecting on assignment feedback and application of learning in practice. Most students will need to spend 5-10 hours per week on their studies.

Career prospects

This qualification is often a requirement for specialist clinical mental health posts in the NHS.

“Specialist status” as deemed by Membership of the College of Mental Health Pharmacy is also increasingly expected for higher level clinical posts in the NHS. This diploma forms part of the pathway for this accreditation.

Be part of our community

Once you have joined us at Aston University, you’ll always be part of our community, even beyond graduation.

Alumni services

Frequently asked questions

Why should international students choose Aston University?

Study at Aston University and you will be part of a multi-cultural community located at the heart of the dynamic city of Birmingham. Our courses are practical, inspired by industry and many have internationally recognised accreditations. Renowned for our employability prospects and connections to business and industry, we provide outstanding career support, advice and placement opportunities.

For those interested in working in the UK after they have graduated, the UK Government has created a new post-study work visa.

Is Birmingham a good place to study?

Our campus is based in the centre of Birmingham, the youngest major city in Europe and a great place to live, work and study.

Great music and entertainment with a vibrant nightlife. Bars, clubs, pubs, live music, festivals, concerts. Whatever your tastes, there's something here for everyone.
Fantastic food. Birmingham's diverse community means you can try anything from the famous Balti triangle, the Chinese Quarter, high street chains, halal and vegan food, and Michelin-star dining.
World-class shopping. The Bullring and Grand Central is a shopper's paradise. From the world's biggest Primark to luxury brands at the Mailbox.
Arts and culture. Museums, galleries, theatres, concerts and Birmingham's art collection is as wide as it is impressive - not to be missed.
Green, open spaces. One of the greenest cities in Europe, Birmingham has hundreds of publicly accessible parks and green spaces across the city.
Sporting action. Birmingham has some of the most exciting venues for watching or participating in sport in the UK.

Discover Birmingham