University College London

Who can apply

• You must have eligibility for 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 (usually the penultimate or last week of September each year)
• If you have completed another NHS funded training course, you must 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 you still have any queries in relation to this, please contact NHSE directly for guidance.

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
• Not be eligible for home fee status

You cannot 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.

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. This should be at a minimum Level 4 and evidence must be provided in your application. Please see UCL’s policies on English proficiency for more details.

Academic

To consider your application, you must have:

• Eligibility for 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 eligibility for 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 an 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, you may still meet our academic criterion if:

There there were mitigating circumstances (for example mental and/or physical health difficulties, significant caring responsibilities, bereavement) and you include in your application:

• How you believe the mitigating circumstances impacted your overall mark meaning it does not reflect your academic capabilities.
• Your academic suitability statement must note the mitigating circumstances and include their assessment that your mark does not reflect your academic capabilities.

You must provide both of these otherwise we will not be able to consider your application.

Or you 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 this is achievable.
• Your academic suitability statement must be from this further study and must include comment on why this better reflects your academic capability than your undergraduate study.

If your degree was outside the UK, please check the UCL website for grade equivalents.

Clinical

At the point of applying you must have:

• At least 12 months Full Time Equivalent (FTE) of relevant clinical experience, including at least 6 months in paid employment.
• Experience can be gained across several roles as long as it adds up to at least 12 months FTE in total.
• Work placements undertaken as part of an educational programme (except those undertaken as part of a paid PhD) and experience gained prior to eligibility for GBC, do NOT count towards the minimum requirement but may still be considered when short-listing.
• 12 months FTE of this experience must have been gained within the last 3 years.

Within this you should have experience of:

• Working directly with client groups clinical psychologists typically work with (any field or specialty).
• Working in or with structured or statutory services (for example NHS, MIND services, hospitals, clinics or related government services such as Social Services, schools or prisons) directly relevant to clinical psychology or in clinically related research roles. This should demonstrate awareness of working practices in the NHS/UK statutory service settings. 

Experience is considered relevant if it helps you develop:

• A realistic expectation of the demands and nature of clinical psychology training and beyond.
• The ability to form empathic relations with service users through 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.
• An awareness of the organisational contexts in which clinical psychology services are usually delivered.
• A capacity to reflect constructively on aspects of own performance (e.g. through supervision).

For research roles to count towards the minimum requirement, they must include direct contact with clinically relevant groups beyond recruitment alone, for example: assessment or testing, delivery of interventions, semi-structured interviews.

References / Statements of suitability

You must provide both an academic suitability statement and a clinical suitability statement with your application for it to be considered. Your academic suitability statement must come from someone able to comment directly on your academic capacity and the clinical suitability statement must be from someone able to comment directly on your clinical capacity. These statements must come from someone who knows you in a professional or employment capacity, we cannot consider statements from friends or someone that knows you well but not in a professional or employment capacity.  If the statement comes from someone who would be considered a peer or near-peer, for example if you are a PWP, and your clinical suitability statement is written by a senior PWP, you must provide a clear rationale for this, eg if they are your clinical supervisor.

At the point of offering places on the course following interviews, the employing Trust (North London 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 eligibility for GBC status
• A transcript of the qualification conferring your eligibility for GBC status
• Transcript(s) from any postgraduate degree(s)
• If you received a 2:1 in the qualification that confers eligibility for 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 on 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, we 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 a 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

Pleases refer to the North London NHS Foundation Trust Job Description and Person Specification.  We would expect all applicants to at least meet the Essential Criteria.

International applicants

We accept applications for overseas fee candidates via our self-funded route.

The academic and clinical requirements are the same as for our home fee applicants - please see the sections which outline our entry requirements for further details.

As set out in the UCL graduate admissions policy, both home fee and international self-funded candidates whose first language is not English, must demonstrate a level of proficiency in both written and spoken English.  This is at a minimum of Level 4 of English proficiency as specified by UCL and you 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 two years prior to the proposed date of enrolment.