Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington offers three postgraduate qualifications in Drug Discovery and Development. Choose the one that suits your career goals, time constraints, and financial situation.

• Master of Drug Discovery and Development (MDDD)
• Postgraduate Diploma in Drug Discovery and Development (PGDipDDD)
• Postgraduate Certificate in Drug Discovery and Development (PGCertDDD)

If you begin by enrolling in the Certificate or Diploma programme, you can continue on to complete your Master’s. Or if you enrol in the Master’s but can’t finish it for whatever reason, you may have completed enough points to be awarded a Certificate or Diploma.

Each qualification includes the core courses DRGD 401 Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, and a choice between DRDG 402 Drug Design or CHEM 421 Organic Chemistry and Bio-organic Chemistry.

After that you'll choose from selected courses from the study areas of Drug Discovery and Development, Biomedical Science, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Clinical Research and Microbiology.

All three qualifications give you the opportunity to do some applied research.

Postgraduate Certificate

Students complete four courses worth 60 points made up of the two core courses and two further choices.

Postgraduate Diploma

Generally, students complete seven courses that will include two core courses, your elective options and the 30-point Research Preparation course.

Master's

Study for the Master's qualification in two parts over three trimesters:

• In Part 1, the first two trimesters, you're likely to take seven courses that will include the core courses and a 30-point Research Preparation course.
• In Part 2, you'll complete a full research project. Choose between DRDG 561 Applied Research Project, to complete one or more problem-solving projects, or DRGD 590 Research Project, to focus on medicinal chemistry and the formulation of active pharmaceutical products. In some cases, you may be able to replace the research project with the thesis course DRGD 595.

You can expect a workload of 40 to 45 hours a week for much of your studies.

The MDDD can be completed in 12 months of full-time study, or in two years of part-time study—but you'll need to discuss this option with the programme director first. The Diploma will take you two trimesters and the Certificate one trimester.

Study at Wellington’s Kelburn campus, where you will have access to state-of-the-art research facilities. Students completing a research programme will also work in partnership the world-renowned Ferrier Research Institute in Lower Hutt.

Be part of a dynamic and collaborative scientific research community. Past students’ research areas in drug discovery and development have included:

• development of a new scaled-up catalytic process for a high-value fine chemical
• isolation and characterisation of a novel bioactive from a New Zealand marine organism
• formulation of a novel therapeutic for cancer immunotherapy.

Find out about research areas at the Ferrier Institute.