Bangor University - North Wales Clinical Psychology Programme

During the selection process, we will contact you by e-mail only, so please check your e-mails, as well as your spam folder and update us with any changes in your contact details.

Shortlisting

Your application is assessed by the programme team and local clinical psychologists, who only see the relevant sections to be marked. They do not have access to your personal details, such as name, address, age, ethnicity etc, only your Clearing House ID number.

For shortlisting, we use all the minimum entry requirements, indicated in this document with a *. We do award additional points for volunteering, publications, and to candidates who are fluent Welsh speakers.

From the final shortlist, we invite the highest ranked candidates, up to three times the number of training places: so, for 15 training places, that will be 45 candidates.

A number of candidates whose application is assessed under the Disability Confident scheme and who have met all the minimum criteria, are also invited for interview. This number varies every year.

Only at the final shortlisting point, the information that you have provided to Clearing House regarding contextual factors, is added. Candidates who have met the minimum criteria and have the highest number of contextual factors are invited to fill the remaining interview places. We had 64 interview places available during the 2024 interviews.

Once we have identified who will be invited for interview, based on your Clearing House ID only, the application forms are downloaded in their entirety and reviewed by the programme director, the recruitment and selection director and other members of the selection team in line with safe recruitment principles.

If you have not been shortlisted for interview, we strongly recommend you check your details against all our selection criteria. We do offer telephone feedback on your application.

Interviews

The interviews will take place in person at Bangor University.

The interview panels usually comprise local clinical psychologists, People Panel members (our expert by experience advisory group) and programme team members. Our interview process consists of three components:

• Academic and research interview
• Clinical and reflective Interview

Each interview is usually 30 minutes duration.

• Written task in which you design a research study and answer other questions. Duration: 60 Minutes.

Feedback

• You will be contacted at the end of the interview week with the outcome. 
• You can ring at a set date for feedback on your interview, which will contain information on how you performed in all three interview components.
• Those on the reserve list will be informed of their place on the reserve list. 
• The person ranked first on the reserve list will be informed of this position, especially when there has been change in the reserve list. You can contact us for updates on your place on the reserve list.

Fitness to Practice, DBS checks and Safeguarding

Please check the Clearing House website for information on Fitness to Practice, DBS checks and safeguarding. 

• When we offer you an interview, you are asked to declare any convictions, cautions, whether you are bound over on barring decisions.
• If you make a declaration, this will be reviewed by the Programme Director and Head of Clinical Psychology Services of the University Health Board, who will decide if the interview can indeed be offered.

Equal Opportunities

Being able to speak Welsh is a desirable characteristic in the person specification of a NWCPP trainee clinical psychologist, as a significant proportion of clients have Welsh as their first language. Being a Welsh speaker is therefore considered a desirable skill and hence when two candidates have similar scores (similar to two decimal points) during the shortlisting or interview stage, and one candidate is a Welsh speaker, the Welsh speaker will be offered an interview or training place.

We use positive action as permitted under the Equality Act 2010. We acknowledge that applicants from racialised minorities and men are underrepresented in the clinical psychology profession. Both are protected characteristics under the Equality Act.

In summary: If candidates have a similar score at the shortlisting or interview stage, then the interview or training place will be offered, in order of priority, to a candidate who is a Welsh speaker, a candidate from a racialised background, and a candidate who identifies as male.

Contextual admissions

Our programme has introduced contextual recruitment processes since the 2022 intake. This is based on evidence that contextualising individuals’ achievements using additional information about their educational, social, and economic background can lead to fairer and more inclusive selection processes. This information can help us to recognize individuals with strong potential for success at doctoral level and within the profession, who otherwise might not have been identified.

The Clearing House will invite you to complete a survey to collect Contextual Selection data separately from the application form. The Group of Trainers in Clinical Psychology have agreed the questions in this survey, which have evidence for improving the inclusivity and equity of recruitment processes.

Completion of this survey is optional, however if you can answer any of the questions which provide some additional background about you, and you are happy to provide this to us via the Clearing House, then we would encourage you to do so.

We include your contextual information in the final step of our shortlisting process, using the minimum entry requirements described earlier.

Those candidates who meet all our minimum requirements, and who are not invited for interview based on their ranking or for having their application reviewed under the Disability Confident scheme, will then be reviewed considering the contextual information provided.

Those with the highest number of contextual factors are then invited for interview.

The number of places available for candidates invited for interview with contextual selection will vary annually. We have a finite number of interview places available, which are filled by those invited based on their ranking and Disability Confident scheme. The remaining places will then be allocated to candidates with the highest number of flags.
 

Disability Confident / Applicants with disabilities

The programme operates the Disability Confident Scheme. 

• The minimum criteria identified above with a * are applied when you have indicated, in the application (Basics - Disability Confident Scheme), that you want your application to be assessed under this scheme.
• Additional to the academic* and clinical* experience requirements (see under entry requirements), two other minimum criteria are a well written personal statement* and two supportive statements of suitability*.
• All minimum criteria need to be met in order to be offered an interview under the disability confident scheme.
• Please email Carolien Lamers for further information and to discuss support that can be made available to you during the selection process and any reasonable adjustments that might be required during training.