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. Together with the South Wales Clinical Psychology Programme we are offering mentorships (under our Cefnogi scheme) for candidates from racialised backgrounds, for up to six sessions. For more information, please email Samantha Owen.

We value and support trainees with lived experience of mental health difficulties and are working together with current and past trainees to develop the work in this area 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. If you are invited for interview, and have indicated you are a fluent Welsh speaker, the host will be communicating with you in Welsh.

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 within supervision, as well as presenting written and other work in Welsh. Welsh-speaking trainees can submit their academic work in Welsh.

We 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. The Health Board and Bangor University offer Welsh language courses for all levels.

Together with the South Wales Programme, we also offer (under our Cam I Fyny scheme) up to six mentorship sessions to candidates who are Welsh-speaking. For more information, please contact Carolien Lamers.

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), most trainees in each cohort are 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%. For conversion degrees all modules are used.
• Please note: If you have commenced or completed 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 contract.
• 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. doing a 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

All points indicated with a * are minimum entry requirements:

• GBC confirmed at the time of application*

and

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.*

OR

A BPS accredited 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.*

OR

2:2 considered only with a completed PhD*

You need to have obtained and emailed us directly (if you have not obtained this in time for the Clearing House submission deadline) your BPS accredited degree transcript by 1st February 2027, in time for short-listing. Please send it to the Bangor DClinPsy email address.

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

• Any publications in journals or newsletters.
• The publications do not need to be in a peer reviewed journal, but could be published in a newsletter, or could be 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. The year experience can consist of several part time posts over a number of years and can have been obtained before your psychology degree.
• The paid clinical work can be undertaken in the UK or another country.
• 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 a special school.
• Experience as a researcher/research assistant should involve the investigation of psychological phenomena within a clinical population. Research undertaken as part of your psychology degree does not count.
• 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 separately for this.

References / Statements of suitability

All points indicated with a * are minimum entry requirements.

Your application must include two satisfactory statements of suitability*.  

• One statement of suitability needs to be from a person who can comment on your academic and research abilities. This is usually a university lecturer or tutor. If your lecturer or tutor is no longer available, explore research/ academic options in your employment role and see if someone else can comment on your academic and research skills and provide the statement of suitability.
• 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 them 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.  There is a space on the application form to explain your choice of people who provide the statements of suitability.

The statements of suitability will be screened and assessed. If either of them is deemed not to be supportive, your application will not proceed.

We strongly advise that you talk to the people who provide your statements 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 BPS accredited conversion course.
• If you have completed a conversion degree, because your original psychology degree did not meet our minimum entry requirements, please ensure that you have attached the transcript of the conversion degree and get in touch with us to ensure we use the correct transcript.
• If you receive your GBC accredited transcript after the Clearing House closing date please email your transcript directly to us before 1st February 2027, as well as uploading it to your application form.
• Please make sure that your transcripts are uploaded correctly and, especially, that you can see them and they are legible when you look at the downloaded PDF version of your application.

Advice for your application

All points indicated with a * are minimum entry requirements.

• Please ensure that your application is well written* and does not have any spelling and grammatical errors*.
• Use your character count wisely and consider that you might have already told us some information elsewhere, e.g., in the work experience section.
• Answer the questions asked, rather than trying to tell us everything you think we should know.
• In your personal statement, we would like to hear what your reflections are on what you have learned from your academic and clinical work, and / or your personal experiences, rather than particular skills you have obtained.
• Your personal statement will be assessed by two clinical psychologists and a member of our People Panel (an expert by experience or carer).
• We appreciate that you might want to use AI to help you draft a statement, but please make it your own. 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 of candidates who do not qualify for home fee status.
• You need to be eligible for home fee 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

All points indicated with a * are minimum entry requirements

• 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.
• The above does not apply to Welsh/English bilingual candidates.