Psychology
Combining cutting edge research with excellent teaching and student support, you’ll cover all of the major approaches in psychology.
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Key Course Details
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UCAS Code
C800
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Start Date
September
-
Location
Pontypridd
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Campus Code
A
Fees
Home students
£9,535*
International students
£16,200*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
-
Start Date
September
-
Location
Pontypridd
-
Campus Code
A
Fees
Home students
£785*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
-
UCAS Code
C802
-
Start Date
September
-
Location
Pontypridd
-
Campus Code
A
Fees
Home students
£9,535*
International students
£16,200*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
We believe that open minds open doors. That’s why our innovative BPS-accredited BSc Psychology degree combines hands-on learning with a rich variety of placement opportunities and real-life projects to give our Psychology graduates the experience they need to kickstart their careers.
DESIGNED FOR
Our aim is to produce career-ready graduates with the skills to succeed in a variety of work environments. Whether you’re interested in traditional psychology careers, working in the social and welfare profession, or analysing human behaviours, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to enhance your prospects and be well equipped to make an impression on a future employer.
Accredited by
- The British Psychological Society
Career paths
- Mental Health
- Social Work
- Teaching
- Research
- Prison Service
Skills taught
- Critical Thinking
- Communication
- Creative Problem Solving
- Proficiency with Statistics and Data
- Research
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Course Highlights
Module Overview
Our Psychology degree combines opportunities to study cutting edge research with access to excellent teaching and student support. You will study the major approaches in psychology, including social, cognitive, biological, and developmental psychology, neuroscience and research methods. You will also develop practical psychology skills in our purpose-built laboratories.
Investigating Methods and Evidence in Psychology*
How is psychological research conducted? We’ll look at the methods of quantitative and qualitative research and analysis and explore research ethics and their effect on psychology.
Thinking Psychologically
The core concepts that frame contemporary psychology and the concomitant ethical issues and questions: start to develop the skills that will underpin your psychological literacy.
*This module can be studied 100% through the medium of Welsh
Introduction to Biological and Cognitive Psychology
A broad overview of the key concepts, theories and research that make up biological and cognitive psychology.
Psychological Development in the Social World
Study key research in social and developmental psychology and develop an understanding of the core, underpinning theoretical principles of this area.
Focusing on investigative psychology, you will have the opportunity to understand and practice quantitative methods such as ANOVA and ANCOVA, as well as qualitative methods like grounded theory and discourse analysis. You will also have the opportunity for paid or voluntary placement activities, helping you strengthen your abilities as a psychologist and develop transferable skills for your future.
Finding Things Out: Approaches to Psychological Investigation
Develop a critical understanding of the methodological skills necessary for psychological investigation.
Professional Practice and Employability
Gain sector-specific work-related experience and/or transferable employability skills linked to psychological theory and research, and address and reflect on some of the ethical and practical issues associated with this.
Advanced Methods and Evidence in Psychology
Expand your knowledge of research methodology, statistics and ethics, along with your ability to critically assess the efficacy of different approaches.
Current Research in Biological and Cognitive Psychology
An overview of some key biological, cognitive and neuroscience research: you will be encouraged to critically evaluate the current research in these areas.
Developmental and Social Perspectives on Identity
Develop a deep critical appreciation of the current debates in social and developmental psychology.
You will complete an Advanced Research Methods project (i.e., dissertation) on a topic that interests you, taking responsibility for the design, execution, analysis, and reporting. You will also learn to apply your knowledge of psychology to specific practice and real-life contexts and choose from a range of further specialist modules that match your interests and career aspirations.
Psychology Dissertation
An original piece of research where you will have the opportunity to collect and analyse data, assess the ethical issues of research, explore research methods, and report your findings.
Using Psychology
Examine the use of Psychology in practice whilst exploring real-life contexts as well as current national and international debates.
The Psychology of Education and Work (Optional)
Learn to critically reflect on the theoretical and research perspectives that underpin educational and occupational psychology.
Health Psychology across the Lifespan (Optional)
Develop a systematic knowledge and critical understanding of a range of topics and issues in Health Psychology, placed in the context of lifespan development.
Psychological Disorders and Therapeutic Interventions (Optional)
Evaluate theoretical models of psychological disorders and critically assess the efficacy of different therapeutic interventions.
Applications of Social Psychology (Optional)
Develop a systematic critical appreciation of how social psychology can be applied in the real world; including the role that social identity plays in this process.
Cognitive Neuropsychology and Neuroscience (Optional)
Understand the cognitive consequences of brain damage and disease and explore the current methods of investigating the structure and function of brain systems and regions.
Forensic Psychology (Optional)
Critically appraise the role that Psychology plays in all aspects of the criminal and civil justice systems.
Course Highlights
How you’ll learn
Our BSc Psychology course provides you with an engaging and immersive learning environment through lectures, workshops, tutorials, projects, group activities, placements, podcasts, and simulation learning in the Hydra Simulation Suite. We also arrange guest lectures throughout the year delivered by academics from other institutions and practising psychologists from various fields. We want you to have the opportunity to learn about psychology in new ways with no two modules being delivered or assessed in the same way: one of our most exciting features is how varied the learning is on our course! Coursework will include essays, practical reports, oral presentations, and case studies.
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Teaching staff
Our academic staff are passionate about psychology and are heavily involved in current psychology research across a range of specialist fields, so your teaching comes from staff at the forefront of their research areas. Tutors specialise in a range of fields, including developmental disorders across the lifespan, health behaviour and sport psychology.
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Placements
You will have specific opportunities throughout the course to apply and understand psychological theory to the workplace, with additional focus for these opportunities in the Professional Practice and Employability module as part of your second year. You can also opt to volunteer for longer than the required hours in your allocated placement setting, or volunteer to support a range of activities across different settings.
We want to help you enhance your skillset to open as may doors as possible for your future career, and you can also find a range of options for this through our Psychology Plus scheme, including volunteering, internships and short courses.
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Facilities
The Psychology facilities at USW are invaluable in helping us understand human behaviour. Our purpose-built psychology lab is filled with industry standard equipment that you will use throughout your studies, as well as interview and observation rooms that allow you, as a researcher, to observe human behaviour in a natural manner through a one-way screen. Some of the equipment that you will use includes eye-tracking equipment, Electroencephalography (EEG) machines, and BIOPAC systems. As part of our dedicated Psychology space, you will also be able to book a space for quiet study and access the dedicated social learning space with computers and psychology textbooks.
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Why USW?
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Accredited by The British Psychological Society.
98% of our BSc (Hons) Psychology students were satisfied with their course (NSS 2023).
Why USW?
94%
of students are in work or further study fifteen months after graduating from USW.
Accredited by The British Psychological Society.
98% of our BSc (Hons) Psychology students were satisfied with their course (NSS 2023).
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ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
UCAS points: 96 (or above)
Typical qualification requirements:
- A Level: CCC to exclude General Studies
- BTEC: BTEC Extended Diploma Merit Merit Merit
- Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Skills Challenge Certificate: Pass the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate Diploma with Grade C in the Skills Challenge Certificate and CC at A Level to exclude General Studies
- Access to HE: Pass the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 96 UCAS tariff points.
Additional requirements include:
The University normally requires a minimum 5 GCSEs including Mathematics/Numeracy and English at Grade C or Grade 4 or above, or their equivalent, but consideration is given to individual circumstances.
International applications welcomed:
We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.
English language requirements
International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 72 overall and a minimum of 18 in reading, 17 in listening, 20 in speaking and 17 in writing or equivalent.
Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.
If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.
If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.
Contextual offers
We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.
USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.
We're here to help
Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.
Fees and Funding
£9,535
per year*£16,200
per year*£16,200
per year*£785
per 20 credits*Additional Costs
As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.
*Obligatory
Students will be expected to pay for a DBS or certificate of good behaviour from their home country. The DBS fee includes £49.50 for the enhanced DBS certificate, the Post Office Administration fee and the online administration fee
Cost: £64.74
Subscription required for each year of the course for a yearly fee of £16. Please note the service has to be joined within 30 days of receipt of your enhanced DBS certificate
Cost: £16
Students undertaking placement as part of professional practice modules may incur costs associated with travel to placement.
Cost: Variable
University Quality Assurance
At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.
If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.
Life at USW
Halls are a big part of your student experience and there’s accommodation at all three of our locations. If you don’t want to live near the campus, there are great transport links to keep you connected.
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How to apply
All applications for full-time undergraduate courses or foundation degrees should be made via UCAS. Take the next step: Apply through UCAS. You can apply to us directly for all part-time undergraduate courses, if you’re seeking advanced entry or you’re an international student. To apply directly, please choose the application form below for your preferred start date and mode of study (full-time or part-time.)
- September 2025 Part-time
- September 2025 Sandwich
- September 2025 Full-time
- September 2026 Part-time
- September 2026 Full-time
- September 2026 Sandwich
Advanced entry
If you already have a relevant qualification or experience related to the course you're applying for, you may be eligible to start at a later stage of the course. For example, students from partner colleges can ‘top up’ their qualifications to a degree by joining us in Year Two or Year Three of a course. This process is known as ‘advanced entry’, you can apply directly to the University for 'advanced entry' using the application forms provided above.
International admissions
International applicants can apply to us directly. If the University has an in-country team in your region, your application will be assigned to them for assistance.
