Bangor University - North Wales Clinical Psychology Programme

Who can apply

Diversity and Inclusion

The programme is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes candidates from all backgrounds and ages.

We are committed to increasing the diversity in our profession and are offering, together with the South Wales Clinical Psychology Programme mentorships to candidates from racialised minorities. For more information, please contact Samantha Owen ([email protected]).

We value and support trainees with lived experience of mental health difficulties and are working together with current and past trainees to develop this work further. 

Welsh Language

We strongly encourage Welsh speakers to apply.

In the shortlisting phase, we award additional points for your ability to speak Welsh. Please indicate on the application form your level of Welsh proficiency.

We can provide a range of facilities to support Welsh speaking trainees to develop their clinical practice skills in the Welsh language, including on placements and, where practicable supervision, as well as presenting written and other work in Welsh. 
We can also support trainees who wish to learn Welsh, wish to refresh their skills, or simply develop more confidence in using their Welsh language skills in practice. 

We offer mentorship sessions to candidates who are Welsh speaking. For more information, please contact Carolien Lamers ([email protected]).

Please note: as the number of bilingual Welsh-English speaking applicants remains low (around 1% of all applicants in the UK, as per  Clearing House equal opportunity data over recent years), the majority of trainees in each cohort is English speaking. 

We are not able to consider you:

• If you have not yet completed your undergraduate or other course that conveys eligibility of Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) with the BPS.
• If you have a 2.2 only.
• If the average final year module mark is below 60%.
• If you want to apply to either Welsh clinical psychology programmes, and are receiving or have completed a training programme funded by NHS training bodies in any of the devolved nations, at least a two year gap between finishing your NHS-funded training and starting NHS-funded clinical psychology training will be required. If you have commenced such training programme before 16 October 2023, you are still eligible to apply for the 2024 intake. Please note: If you have commenced your CAAPs training in South Wales, you will require a 2-year gap between finishing your Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) funded training and starting clinical psychology training as set out in your contracts.
• If you have any outstanding requirements from another programme, you may be required to withdraw from that programme before taking up a place on a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. Being in the final stages of such a programme, i.e. PhD and the submission of your thesis has occurred or is imminent at the time of applying, your application might be considered.
• If you have alternative funding.
• If you qualify for overseas fee status.
• If you have no leave to remain in the UK.

Academic

The points below are all minimum entry requirements*:

• GBC confirmed at the time of application*
• 2:1 or 1st class level degree in Psychology, recognised by the BPS for GBC with an average final year module mark of 60% or higher. We review the marks of your final year modules on your transcript and calculate an average, without applying any weighting.*
• 2:2 considered only with a completed PhD.
• A recognised "conversion" degree, with a 2:1 or 1st class, with an average for all modules needing to be 60% or higher. For a conversion course, all your modules will be used to calculate this average.*

While not part of the minimum entry requirements, we do award points for: 

• any presentations at conferences or other public events, publications in journals or newsletters. 
• The presentations could be to local charities, voluntary organisations or similar. 
• The publications do not need to be in a peer reviewed journal, but could be published in a newsletter, or a book review in the Psychologist.
• Please write them up in APA referencing style

Clinical

The points below are minimum entry requirements:

• Minimum of one year relevant paid clinical/research experience of working with a clinical population*. Clinically relevant experience should give you the opportunity for substantial interaction with people with significant health or psychological difficulties, ideally under the supervision of a clinical psychologist.
• While being supervised by a clinical psychologist can be advantageous, the paid experience does not need to be in an assistant psychology role.
• Experience obtained in other paid employment working with a clinical population will also be relevant. Types of paid experience can include mental health worker, support worker, care assistant, nurse, occupational therapist, mental health advocate, charity worker for people with psychological and/or physical difficulties, teacher in special school.
• Experience as a researcher/research assistant should involve the investigation of psychological phenomena within a clinical population.
• We credit a maximum of two years full-time equivalent, paid relevant clinical experience.
• Clinical experience obtained and required as part of another training, rather than paid employment, is not considered.
• While voluntary work is not considered relevant paid clinical experience, points are awarded for this.

References / Statements of suitability

Your application must include two satisfactory statements of suitability*.  

• One statement of suitability needs to be from person who can comment on your academic and research abilities. This is usually a university lecturer or tutor. 
• The other statement of suitability relates to your clinical skills and preferably is provided by the employer or supervisor in your most recent post unless you have only been working with the referee for a relatively short period.  In that case you could consider asking the person you worked with before and who has known you for a longer period.  

Two clinical psychologists assess the statements of suitability. If they consider a statement of suitability not to be supportive, they will share their concerns with a larger group of assessors, who will need to agree whether the statement of suitability is considered supportive. If not deemed supportive, your application will not proceed.

We strongly advise that you talk to the people who provide your statement of suitability for training, to ensure that they can wholeheartedly support your application.

Documents required

• A document confirming your GBC status.
• An academic transcript of your undergraduate psychology degree.
• And, if your undergraduate degree was not in psychology, an academic transcript of your conversion course.

Advice for your application

• Please ensure that your application is well written* and is devoid of spelling and grammatical errors*. 
• Answer the questions asked, rather than trying to tell us everything you think we should know. 
• Do not duplicate what you have already told us elsewhere, e.g., in the work experience section. 
• Use the character count on your application form.
• We are interested in getting to know you

International applicants

• Due to the funding arrangements of Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) for places on the Programme, we cannot consider applications who do not qualify for home fee status.
• You need to be eligible for home fees status.
• Candidates from the EU, other EEA and Swiss Nationals, will need to have been granted settled status in the UK.

Non first language English speakers

• If English is not your first language, you will be required to provide evidence that you possess an adequate level of English competence. You need to have obtained level 8 on the IELTS scheme*, with no elements below 7.5.  
• Having completed an academic psychology programme in the UK through the medium of English, will be considered evidence of your English language competence.
• This does not apply to Welsh/English bilingual candidates.