University College London

Who can apply

• You must have Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) with the BPS at the point of applying to the course
• You must not still be formally registered for (or re-sitting examinations) for another programme of study at UCL or any other Higher Education Institution at the start of our programme (last week of September each year)
• If you have completed another HEE funded training course, you must please ensure you check their website for guidance on eligibility to apply to the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology training programme as this would apply to our course. 

If applying for home fee funded places, you must:

• Be eligible for home fee status. Please check the UCL website for details or contact the admission office directly if you are still unsure after consulting their website
• Have the right to work in the UK without restriction

If applying for international self-funded places, you must:

• Be eligible for overseas fee status

You can not apply to both our home fee and self-funded international fee routes simultaneously. If you do, your application will be rejected.  Please contact the admissions office with any queries on this.

As per the UCL graduate admissions policy, command of the English language is considered essential. For both home fee and international fee applicants whose first language is not English, you must demonstrate a level of proficiency in both written and spoken English – for our programme at UCL, applicants are required to achieve a minimum of Level 4 of English proficiency as specified by UCL and provide evidence of this in their application. For more details of qualifications accepted and criteria for Level 4 of English proficiency, please see UCL’s policies on English proficiency

Academic

To consider your application, you must have:

• Graduate Basis for Chartered (GBC) membership of the British Psychological Society (BPS) confirmed at the time of applying.
• At least a high 2:1 (defined as an overall percentage mark of 67% or above) in the course that provides GBC (undergraduate or conversion)
  • Your academic transcript must be provided. If the overall percentage mark is not included on your transcript, please provide a letter from the course giving this percentage or confirmation that they are unable to provide this in which case you may provide your own calculation, including detail on how this has been done.  If you do not provide this evidence, your application will not be considered.
  • If you received a First, you do not need to provide a mark as it will, by definition, be above 67%
  • If your eligibility for GBC was granted by the BPS due to Special Case Criteria, you must have achieved and overall percentage mark of 67% or above in all qualifications contributing to the award.

If you did not receive a high 2:1 or above:

But have a 2:1 with a mark of less than 67% and there were mitigating circumstances (for example mental and/or physical health difficulties, significant caring responsibilities, bereavement) include in your application:

• How you believe the mitigating circumstances impacted your overall mark and therefore does not reflect your academic capabilities.
• Ask your academic referee to note the mitigating circumstances in their reference and their agreement that your mark does not reflect your academic capabilities.

If BOTH of these are not provided, we will be unable to consider your application.

Or you have a 2:1 with a mark of less than 67% or a 2:2 and have completed further relevant postgraduate study (PhD or MSc; NOT a PGDip or a PGCert):

• For an MSc, you must have gained an overall percentage mark of 67% or above and it must have included a research dissertation. As detailed for undergraduate degrees above, you must provide evidence of the mark. If you do not provide this, we will be unable to consider your application.
• If you have not completed your PhD, your thesis will need to be submitted before the course commences and your academic reference should confirm that this is achievable.
• Your academic reference must be from this further study, allowing comment on why this better reflects your academic capability than your undergraduate study.

For applicants outside the UK, please check here for grade equivalents.

Clinical

To consider your application, at the point of applying as a minimum you must have:

At least 12 months Full Time Equivalent (FTE) of relevant clinical experience in the UK, with at least 6 months in paid employment:

• Experience can be gained across a number of roles, but must add up to at least 12 months FTE in total.
• Work placements undertaken as part of an educational programme, and experience gained prior to GBC, are NOT included in the minimum criteria but will be considered in relation to relevant experience while short-listing.
• 12 months FTE of this experience must have been gained within the last 3 years.

Experience of working directly with client groups clinical psychologists typically work with (this could be in any field or specialty)

Some experience of structured or statutory services (for example NHS, MIND services, hospitals, clinics or related government services such as Social Services, schools or prisons) or in clinically related research roles. Your experience must demonstrate awareness of how the NHS functions and operates day-to-day. 

Experience is considered relevant if it offers opportunities to develop:

• an idea of what clinical psychologists actually do
• direct clinical contact with “typical” users of clinical psychology services, usually gained in a coherent organisational context rather than as a series of "one-off" contacts
• a sense of the organisational contexts in which clinical psychologists usually operate

To count towards the minimum experience requirement above, research roles need to include direct contact with clinically relevant groups that is not limited to recruitment, for example: assessment or testing, delivery of interventions, semi-structured interviews.

References / Statements of suitability

You must provide both an academic and a clinical reference (suitability statement) with your application for it to be considered. Please note, each reference must be able to comment directly on your skills in each area. Your academic reference must be able to comment directly on your academic capacity and the clinical reference must be able to comment directly on your clinical capacity. Please note, these references must come from someone who knows you in a professional or employment capacity, we cannot consider references from friends or someone that knows you well but not in a professional or employment capacity.

At the point of offering places on the course following interviews, the employing Trust (Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust) will also need to complete pre-employment checks, which includes securing a satisfactory employment reference from your most recent employer. All offers are conditional on satisfactory employment references.

Documents required

• A document confirming GBC status
• A transcript of the applicant's undergraduate degree conferring GBC status
• Transcript(s) from any postgraduate degree(s)
• If you received a 2:1 in the degree that confers GBC status and the transcript from this course does not provide a final overall percentage mark:
  • Please provide a letter from the course confirming the final percentage grade. This can either be a letter from the department or email correspondence with the department / registry.
  • If your university cannot provide confirmation of the percentage but they give instructions of how to calculate the overall percentage, please do this and include your overall percentage on your application form You should then upload the correspondence detailing the instructions of how to calculate the percentage with your application to explain how you have calculated the percentage.
  • If your university is unable to provide confirmation of your overall percentage or instructions for how to do so, please upload the correspondence with your university.  Please also provide a "best guess" calculation of a percentage plus how you calculated it.
  • We are unable to consider your application without an overall percentage mark.
• If you were awarded a 1st on your degree, you do not require confirmation of overall percentage as it is, by definition, more than 67%.
   

Advice for your application

You should be able to demonstrate:

• Your understanding of the role of the clinical psychologist in contemporary healthcare systems
• An ability to be reflective about your own experience 
• A capacity for analytical, critical thought
• Research experience, including any experience of service evaluation 
• Demonstration of NHS core values and commitment to service users
   

International applicants

• We accept applications for overseas fee candidates via our international route.
• The academic and clinical requirements would be the same for our international applicants as they are for our home fee applicants, please see the sections which outline our entry requirements for further details. 
• As per the UCL graduate admissions policy, command of the English language is considered essential. Both home fee and international fee candidates whose first language is not English, must demonstrate a level of proficiency in both written and spoken English – for our programme at UCL, applicants are required to achieve a minimum of Level 4 of English proficiency as specified by UCL and must provide evidence of this in their application. For more details of qualifications accepted and criteria for Level 4 of English proficiency, please see UCL’s policies on English proficiency
• If undertaken, please provide any certificates from an acceptable English language qualification or test result no more than three years prior to the proposed date of enrolment.