Psychology MSci

Course overview

The Psychology MSci is a four-year, BPS accredited course that develops students’ broad knowledge within the exciting field of psychology. We also offer a three-year undergraduate BSc course.

In your first three years, you will gain an extensive, comprehensive, and dynamic introduction to many areas within psychology. In the extended fourth year, you will study Master’s-level modules and take a placement in either a research group or workplace (applied) setting. In your first year, you will study several compulsory modules and take one elective module. Compulsory modules include a general introduction to scientific psychology, research design and data analysis, topics in cognitive psychology, social psychology, and individual differences.

Reflecting the research-intensive department that you will be joining, you will begin writing research lab reports from the very start of your studies, as well as beginning to learn R, a programming language used in data analysis and presentation. Your elective module can be selected from any open module from across UCL with many students choosing modules in forensic psychology, neuroscience, or linguistics.

There are no elective modules in the second year, but your learning will continue in the areas of developmental psychology, health and clinical psychology, language and cognition, perception, and the neurological underpinnings of behaviour. You will continue your studies in research design and data analysis. Students are encouraged to think about future research and career opportunities by the end of your second year.

In your third year, you will be able to select all your modules from a wide number of options taught across psychology. This allows you to specialise your studies in particular areas that interest you, with optional modules available in areas such as educational psychology, cognitive neuroscience, organisational psychology, and computer programming.

You will also undertake a research project on a subject of your choice and become embedded in one of the research departments within the faculty. Your research project (similar to a dissertation on other courses) will be supervised by a member of academic staff and will be an empirical and usually experimental piece of research which utilises the skills you have learned. It is a challenging yet rewarding culmination of your three years of studying, where you will be able to develop your own hypotheses, test these with real data, measure outcomes and test for probability, before writing up your own research paper.

In your final year, you will take Master's-level modules from a range of options usually within the areas of psychology, psychiatry, and language sciences, and also in advanced data analysis. Students on both routes will take modules relevant to their research interests, in order to prepare them for the independent piece of research conducted in either a UCL laboratory (research route) or in a workplace setting (applied route). Additionally, students on the applied route will take a compulsory module on behavioural research methods in applied settings.

You will get taught by academics and researchers carrying out pioneering and innovative research across the subject of psychology and students benefit from being exposed to influential researchers from the very start of their studies. Our department is community-minded and our researchers and academics are eager to hear from and support undergraduate students with their own academic interests.

Become the next generation of psychology experts by studying UCL's Psychology MSci course. We are ranked fourth in the world for Psychology in the ShanghaiRanking Global Ranking of Academic Subjects for 2023.

On this integrated Master's course, accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS), you will study a wide coverage of the field of psychology with opportunities to specialise your studies. In your fourth year, you will gain additional research experience by completing a placement either with a UCL research group or in a workplace (applied) setting.

The English language level for this programme is: Level 3

The foundation of your career

Your knowledge of all areas of psychology makes you eligible for entry into any field normally open to psychology graduates, or for further graduate training (which is required for graduates wishing to work as a chartered professional psychologist in the areas of health, forensic, clinical, educational, and occupational psychology).

While many of our graduates have gone on to work in the National Health Service (NHS), others have gone on to work for charities, in finance and industry. Our graduates have gone on to work as psychologists, biomedical scientists, and managers in IT (data is from the Graduate Outcomes survey carried out by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), looking at the destinations of UK and EU graduates from 2017-18 to 2020-21). It is important to bear in mind that psychology provides a very useful basis for a wide range of other careers.

The Master’s level research that you carry out on the MSci course is a great platform for future PhD study and many graduates pursue an academic career as well.

For further information on careers, visit the website of the British Psychological Society.

Employability

In addition to subject-based skills and knowledge, psychology graduates also acquire a number of transferable skills.

You will have significant training and education in statistics and numeracy, IT literacy and programming, data management and analysis, critical thinking and problem solving, time management, independent research, team working, report writing, presentation skills, communication and literacy skills, and the ability to work ethically and professionally with people. These abilities are all highly valued in a range of employment fields.