The British Psychological Society is a name familiar to most students in Britain studying psychology. Founded in 1901, the society is the professional and learned body for psychologists in the UK, and has more than 35,000 members. These include student members, affiliates, graduates members and chartered psychologists.
Like many professional societies, the British Psychological society accredits degrees and courses at universities throughout the UK. This includes nearly 700 undergraduate degrees, and more than 70 postgraduate professional training psychology courses.The society accredits undergraduate degrees on two bases. They are either accredited to give a holder of the degree the society's Graduate basis of Registration, or simply to qualify them for Graduate Membership of the society.
If you pass a degree, which entitles you to the society's Graduate Basis of Registration, this means that you can then go on for further postgraduate training to become a professional psychologist. Accredited degrees contain the broad psychological base, which the society considers necessary for anyone who wants to make psychology their career. However, if you do not want to become a psychologist you may decide to do a degree that entitles you to a graduate membership of the Society.
Degrees which are accredited for this are well resourced, but do not necessarily have a broad enough psychological base for you to become a psychologist. For example, they might be joint degrees with other subjects, or only look at one aspect of psychology in depth.
You should always ask the institution where you hope to study whether the degree course you are interested in is accredited by the Society and whether this accreditation is for Graduate Basis of Registration, or for Graduate Membership. Then you can use this information to help you make your choice. The important thing to remember is that you want to go on to train as a psychologist who works in Britain you must hold the Graduate Basis of Registration. The easiest way to get this is through taking a suitably accredited degree. If you have a Psychology Honours Degree that does not meet these criteria, you can take a qualifying exam in addition, but obviously this means extra work. (People who have an honours degree in another subject can also take this qualifying exam.)
If you are already a graduate and you want to take a professional postgraduate training course in psychology, again you should check that it is accredited by the British Psychological Society. The 70 psychology courses throughout the UK cover Training in Clinical, Counselling, Occupational, Forensic, Educational and Health Psychology. They contain different elements of practical experience and have different entry requirements. For example, people training as educational psychologists in England and Wales also need to be qualified teachers who have worked in a school. Although technically someone with a first degree in psychology could train as a clinical psychologist without any experience, in practise they have usually worked in a junior capacity in a psychology service before training. And so on. Once you have decided what sort of psychologist you would like to be you should approach different training courses to see which one suits you best, and what their requirements are. As already discussed, they will require at minimum, the Graduate Basis for Registration.
If you want to study for a research degree in psychology, you should find out which psychology departments specialise in the area you are interested in, and approach them directly. The British Psychological Society does not accredit research degrees.
Once you have completed your postgraduate training in psychology you may want to apply to The British Psychological Society to become a Chartered Psychologists. Most employers in the public sector prefer to employ Chartered Psychologists. In order to become a Chartered Psychologist you need to have completed a first degree with Graduate Basis for Registration, followed by an accredited course in your area of the profession, as listed above, or a PhD in Psychology.
The system may seem complicated - if you have any queries the contact the British Psychological Society for more information.
While you are a psychology student in Britain you may like to join the Society as a student member. You will then receive the Society's monthly publication 'The Psychologist' and have access to a range of services and information and a large network of psychologists.
