About

Overview

This one-year conversion course will help you take the next steps on your psychology career path and gain a Psychological Society of Ireland pre-professional qualification.

During the course, you’ll delve deeper into the six pillars of psychology: biological bases of behaviour, developmental and lifespan psychology, cognitive psychology, social psychology, personality and individual difference, and research design and methods. You’ll also work on a supervised research project across all three trimesters.

Benefit from individual support
With just 20 places available, the small class size offers more tailored learning and access to individual support. This extremely popular programme is open to graduates with 60 European Credit Transfer System credits in psychology and research, which is equivalent to about one-year full-time related study.

Most students on this course aim to pursue a career as a psychologist, and you'll graduate with the knowledge and skill set for roles like counselling psychologist or assistant psychologist. . assistant psychologist, and gain the qualification necessary to pursue further professional study in psychology (e.g. in clinical, counselling or other applied areas). Once you graduate, however, you’ll have a wide range of transferable skills you could use in research, data analysis, health promotion or academia.

Requirements

Entry Requirements

General Entry Requirements

For admission to the MSc in Psychology (Conversion), entrants will typically hold:

A (NFQ) Level 8 Honours Degree with a H2.1 or international equivalent in a discipline cognate to Psychology (e.g. Humanities; Human Sciences, Education Sociology, Health and Society, etc.) or have completed a Psychology Honours Degree that did not confer eligibility for the graduate basis from the Psychological Society of Ireland (otherwise known as Psychological Studies degree).
Applicants should also have a minimum combined total of 60 ECTS in Psychology modules (or modules with a substantial element of Psychology, e.g Health Promotion, Human Resources, etc.) and/or Research Methods modules (or equivalent modules, e.g. Research Project/Thesis, Statistics, Data Analysis/Data Handling etc.)
Candidates who are non-native speakers of English must satisfy the University of their competency in the English language. More information about DCU's English language requirements can be found here.

Due to the specialist nature of this programme, additional criteria may be used to assess suitability to undertake this programme. For further information, please contact the Programme Chair using the contact details above

As part of the application process applicants may be called for interview.

In addition to the above, applicants with appropriate combinations of professional qualifications and experience may be considered. This may include demonstrated substantial additional prior experiential learning in Psychology and/or Research Methods. These individuals will be considered on a case by case basis. We will particularly recognise those individuals who have substantial Research Methods and Statistics experience.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) applicants are required to submit a cover letter along with their application under the Transcripts section of the portal, affirming their intent to apply for RPL. For more information on RPL see here.

English Program Requirements

Postgraduate Taught Programmes Note: In exceptional circumstances, results in examinations other than those published may be accepted as proof of competence in English language for postgraduate taught programmes.

This may include:

Non-native speakers of English who in the past two years have completed their school education through the medium of English in a country where English is the official language. For example, applicants who have successfully achieved a 06/H7 in Leaving Certificate English, a Grade D in A Level English or an examination deemed as an equivalent by DCU.
Applicants who have completed their undergraduate degree in the past two years, in a country where English is the official language.
Applicants who have recently lived in a country where English is the official language for at least four years and been employed in a professional role that required a high level of written and verbal communication. Applicants will be required to provide specific documentation to evidence this e.g. residency documentation, employer statement.

Research Programmes Note: Faculty of Engineering & Computing and Faculty of Science & Health

In exceptional circumstances, results in examinations other than those published may be accepted as proof of competence in English language for research programmes in the Faculties noted above.

For further details about DCU English Language Requirements, please contact DCU Admissions.

Career

Careers & Further Options

Careers

This course has been designed to enable graduates to seek membership of the Psychological Society of Ireland upon completion. Such membership is a prerequisite for further study in psychology, including clinical and applied areas.

Graduates from this course who wish to pursue further study in psychology as a discipline can go on to specialise with either Master’s and Doctorate qualifications in counselling, clinical psychology, forensic psychology, educational psychology, research and a range of other specialist areas in psychology.

Most students study psychology because they aim to pursue a career as a psychologist. However, others choose to study psychology because it offers a broad training in a behavioural science, it develops a wide range of valued transferable skills and it can be used as a stepping-stone into several other careers.

Career Prospects

Assistant psychologist positions

Marketing

Management

Research

Data analysis

Human resources

Health promotion

Community development

DCU Career Services

"DCU graduates are highly sought after by employers. Our Graduates work in environments ranging from large multinationals to SMEs, family businesses and start-ups across every sector.

DCU Careers Service has a number of learning and development initiatives in place for our students, giving them the skills they need for a successful career path."

Go to our Careers site to find out more about career planning, our mentorship programme, skills development and online resources for students when working on CVs and making applications.

Fee Information

Tuition Fee

19,354 / year