BSc Psychology with Professional Placement

This course is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and enables you to choose to take further training to become a professional psychologist. It incorporates a year-long placement that will enable you to develop valuable professional skills. In the National Student Survey 2023, 93% of our students said that teaching staff were good or very good at explaining things (93.18% of respondents studying on BSc Psychology with Professional Placement).

The degree will give you a thorough grounding in key areas of psychology and allows you to choose modules that suit your specific interests, including a range of modules from other subjects. Should you wish to study abroad, you can spend a semester of your final year at one of our overseas partner institutions.

As a psychology student you can take advantage of research laboratories, neuroimaging facilities and resources for observing participant behaviour. Additionally, we have various in-house NHS clinics, including our Anxiety and Depression and Speech and Language Therapy clinics, the Centre for Autism, as well as the world-renowned Charlie Waller Institute for evidence-based psychological treatments on site.

The first year of the course will introduce you to the concepts required for BPS qualification, including cognition, neuroscience, development, perception and research methods. You will then cover these and other subjects in far greater depth during the second year. In the final year of the degree you can develop your knowledge by exploring the areas that interest you most. The vast majority of modules in this year are optional and are regularly revised in order to incorporate the latest developments in psychology. Recent modules have included subjects such as autistic spectrum conditions, behavioural economics, nutritional psychology, and emotion, empathy and their disorders.

Throughout the course you will gain practical experience, and learn how to devise and run your own experiments. During the final year you will carry out an original piece of research on a topic of your choice. In the past these have included the effects of emotion on cognition, the effects of Huntington's Disease on quality of life, and using puppets to test children's IQ. You may even have the opportunity to present your work at conferences, and a number of past projects have won awards from the BPS and British Neuroscience Association.

For more information, please visit the School of Psychology website.

Placement

You can gain experience of working with professional psychologists by spending a year working within an NHS clinic, research lab or organisation.

You may have the opportunity to carry out this placement at one of our in-house organisations. These include the Anxiety and Depression in Young People clinic, Speech and Language Therapy clinic, the Charlie Waller Institute, Centre for Autism, and the Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health.

Placement year fees

During your placement year you will pay 15% of the full course fee.