Advance your pharmacy practice with deeper clinical expertise, patient-centred insight, and the skills to lead change in healthcare.
Why study postgraduate Clinical Pharmacy?
Clinical Pharmacy focuses on how medicines are used in real-world patient care. Postgraduate study at Otago is designed for practising pharmacists who want to improve health outcomes, support people with complex conditions and play a more active role in clinical decision-making.
Deepen your understanding of therapeutics, evidence-based practice and patient-centred care, while developing the skills to optimise medicines and contribute confidently to multidisciplinary teams. The programmes are structured to broaden your clinical scope while remaining closely connected to your workplace and community.
Career opportunities
Postgraduate Clinical Pharmacy prepares you for advanced roles across primary, secondary and specialised care. Graduates often move into positions such as:
- Advanced clinical pharmacist roles in community pharmacy or hospital pharmacy.
- Specialist pharmacist positions managing complex medication regimens and therapeutic care (for example for chronic disease, aged care or inpatient wards).
- Pharmaceutical advisory or medicines-management roles within hospitals or health services.
- Research-oriented roles, such as working on pharmacy practice research, clinical trials or health services research.
- Leadership, education or consultancy roles in the pharmaceutical industry, policy, or professional organisations.
What it’s like to study at this level
Postgraduate Clinical Pharmacy at Otago blends clinically relevant coursework with flexibility. Most papers are delivered by distance, supported by online modules, evening videoconferences and short on campus workshops in Dunedin.
You will learn through case-based teaching, structured reflection, and engagement with current evidence. If you progress to a master’s degree, you will work closely with an academic supervisor to explore a research question grounded in real practice. This mix of learning helps you build advanced clinical judgement, confidence and a more strategic understanding of pharmacy’s role in the health system.
This is for you if ...
You are a registered pharmacist working in community, hospital, industry or primary care, and you are motivated by patient-centred practice, problem solving and improving the quality of medicines use.
Take the next step in your clinical career
Otago’s School of Pharmacy is ranked among the world’s top 150 pharmacy schools and is a leader in clinical and professional education.
Our postgraduate Clinical Pharmacy programmes are designed for practising pharmacists and offer flexible, distance enabled learning so you can advance your clinical expertise while continuing to work.
You will learn from experienced clinicians, researchers and educators who are shaping pharmacy practice in Aotearoa. Whether you aim to move into advanced clinical roles, contribute to medicines management, or pursue practice-based research, Otago provides the support, structure and expertise to help you grow.
Choose a study option
Whether you are advancing your career with our specialised graduate qualifications or pursuing in-depth research and expertise through our postgraduate programmes, Otago is here to support your aspirations.
Postgraduate qualifications
Honours, masters’, PhDs, and other advanced degrees for graduates. Just one additional year of study will earn you a valuable postgraduate degree. Or perhaps you want the depth of a full year of research-only time during a master’s or to step up to a PhD.
Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy (PGDipClinPharm)
A distance-taught, coursework programme for registered pharmacists that can be completed with full-time (one-year) or part-time study (maximum four years)
Master of Clinical Pharmacy (MClinPharm)
A primarily distance-taught, advanced degree for working registered pharmacists, requiring a significant supervised research project, culminating in a thesis.
Ready to apply?
Take your expertise to the next level with advanced study.
Contacts
See the subject entry for Pharmacy for further information about the general subject area of pharmacy.
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