What (in the UK) is the route of study to become a qualified Psychologist?

Hello,

In order to qualify as a psychologist in the UK in any field (e.g. clinical psychology, forensic psychology...) you first need an undergraduate psychology honours degree (either BA or BSc) that is accredited by the British Psychological Society-I can't stress enough how important this is! The Open University do have an accredited degree-their BSc (hons) Psychology (code B07) is fully accredited by the BPS. However, you must ensure that you complete all the compulsory courses required to receive this award; they are detailed on their website. The OU's joint honours psychology degrees (e.g. BA/BSc (hons) criminology and psychological studies) are NOT accredited.

Accreditation also leads onto registration with the BPS once you graduate. The BPS previously gave recognition to all psychology graduates from accredited courses. However, in the last couple of years they have changed the conditions so that now students must graduate with at least second class honours to become registered-the BPS will no longer register third class psychology graduates. So not only do you need to study an accredited course, you also need to pass with lower second class or better honours. You can no longer get registration if your degree was not accredited to begin with-the BPS entry exam for graduates of non-accredited courses has recently been scrapped.

The postgraduate qualification you need to become a psychologist will vary depending on the type of psychologist you want to be. For example, a clinical psychologist needs an undergraduate degree followed by a 3 year doctorate in clinical psychology whereas a forensic psychologist needs an undergraduate degree followed by a 1 year masters in forensic psychology. Again these postgraduate qualifications must be BPS accredited! Entry to postgraduate courses in psychology can be very competitive. Thus, not only do the entry requirements ask applicants to be BPS registered, they will often request that you have at least an upper second class degree (note this is an even higher honours classification than that required for BPS registration!) as well as some kind of relevant work and/or research experience; usually around a years worth. Basically, the better your honours classification and the better the quality of your experience, the much better your chances of a place on a competitive course.

Remember, individual psychology courses at the OU are not recognised by the BPS as such, only the actual entire psychology honours degree (this is the case with a degree from any university). On the BPS website under accreditation, the OU's psychology degree is listed as an accredited degree. I completed my BSc (hons) with the OU in 2008 and am now registered with the BPS. When I studied with them the compulsory courses per level were as follows:

Level 1:

No compulsory level 1 courses although some social science courses are recommended.

Level 2:

DSE212 Exploring Psychology (60 credits)

ED209 Child Development (60 credits)

DZX222 or DXR222 Online or residential school project (15 credits)

SD226 Biological Psychology (30 credits)

Level 3:

DD307 Social Psychology (60 credits)

DD303 Cognitive Psychology (60 credits)

It may be a good idea for you to chat with an OU adviser if you want a thorough explanation of the degree requirements and accreditation just incase anything has changed since I studied undergraduate with them!

I hope this all makes sense and doesn't scare you off psychology-it all sounds very complex but it's pretty straight forward once you get into it!

Good luck :-)

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Why don't psychology students look out of the window in the morning? Because then they would have nothing to do in the afternoon

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