Overview

The details

Course: Psychology

Start date: October 2025

Study mode: Full-time

Duration: 1 year - 2 years

Location: Colchester Campus

Based in: Psychology

Supervision for MSD Psychology within our Department of Psychology is available in diverse fields of psychology including (but not limited to) cognitive psychology, social and cognitive neuroscience, social psychology, and developmental psychology. You study in a stimulating and vibrant research environment, and we provide excellent research facilities. In general, our students enjoy the same access to neuroscience and other research equipment as our academic staff, and access to our research participant pool, which is essential for your experimental research.

You also benefit from the supportive supervision given by our staff, and the friendly and collegiate atmosphere provided by fellow students. This ensures that we have an exemplary record in supporting our MSD students to produce high-quality theses within one year.

Please note, part-time research study is also available.

We also offer an Integrated PhD in this subject, which enables you to spend your first year completing a Masters-level qualification followed by a full-time PhD studied over 3-4 years.

Why we're great.

We offer a range of research degree studentships and funding opportunities.
We provide excellent state-of-the-art facilities for study, with extensive laboratory space for experimental psychology and special facilities for visual and auditory perception, developmental psychology and social psychology, with our Hearing Research Laboratory and our Visual Perception Unit.
We also have our Centre for Brain Sciences (CBS), a state-of-the-art research facility dedicated to the study of brain activity in relation to psychological processes. This provides a dynamic resource for psychology and neuroscience, with specialised laboratories for investigating brain activity.

Our expert staff

Our psychology lecturers include award-winning teachers and prize-winning researchers who are international experts in their own research areas.

Our staff carry out research into areas of psychology that fall under our three key themes: thinking about the world, interacting with the world, and experiencing the world. These three themes help tie your knowledge together as they directly feed into our modules, where you can study how we remember things, what captures out attention, how relationships work, what our emotions do with us, or the impact of culture on ourselves and others.

Within our Department of Psychology, you will be allocated a supervisor whose role it is to guide you through the different stages of your research degree. In some cases, you may have joint supervision by two members of our staff.

The support provided by your supervisor is a key feature of your research student experience and you will have regular one-to-one meetings to discuss progress on your research. Initially, your supervisor will help you develop your research topic and plan.

Twice a year, you will have a supervisory panel meeting, which provides a more formal opportunity to discuss your progress and agree your plans for the next six months.

Specialist facilities

Within our Department of Psychology, we provide excellent state-of-the-art facilities for your study, with extensive laboratory space for experimental psychology and special facilities for visual and auditory perception, developmental psychology and social psychology.

We also have our Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, a state-of-the-art research facility dedicated to the study of brain activity in relation to psychological processes. This provides a dynamic resource with specialised laboratories for investigating behaviour and brain activity including: two eye tracking labs for recording eye movements, four electroencephalography (EEG) labs for recording cortical oscillatory activity, event-related potentials (ERP) and functional connectivity; two near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) labs for measuring changes in blood oxygenation levels; four neuromodulation labs including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), repetitive TMS (rTMS), transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and neuronavigation facilities.

Your future

With the skills and knowledge you acquire from studying within our Department of Psychology, you will find yourself in demand from a wide range of employers. Our graduates have been employed in clinical psychology, educational psychology, criminal and forensic psychology.

We also have excellent links with the research community and our PhD students have taken up post-doctoral positions in other top UK universities and internationally (including in the US, Italy and Australia), as well as being appointed to lectureships.

Entry requirements

UK entry requirements

You will need a high lower second class honours degree (2:2) or equivalent in psychology or a related subject

You will normally be required to attend an interview/Skype interview for acceptance, and acceptance is subject to research expertise in the department.

International & EU entry requirements

We accept a wide range of qualifications from applicants studying in the EU and other countries. Get in touch with any questions you may have about the qualifications we accept. Remember to tell us about the qualifications you have already completed or are currently taking.

Sorry, the entry requirements for the country that you have selected are not available here. Please contact our Graduate Admissions team at pgquery@essex.ac.uk to request the entry requirements for this country.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language , we require IELST 7.0, or equivalent with a minimum of 5.5 in all other components.

Structure

Course structure

A research degree doesn't have a taught structure, giving you the chance to investigate your chosen topic in real depth and reach a profound understanding. In communicating that understanding, through a thesis or other means, you have a rare opportunity to generate knowledge. A research degree allows you to develop new high-level skills, enhance your professional development and build new networks. It can open doors to many careers.

We understand that deciding where and what to study is a very important decision for you. We'll make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the courses, services and facilities as described on our website and in line with your contract with us. However, if we need to make material changes, for example due to significant disruption, we'll let our applicants and students know as soon as possible.

Components and modules explained

Components

Components are the blocks of study that make up your course. A component may have a set module which you must study, or a number of modules from which you can choose.

Each component has a status and carries a certain number of credits towards your qualification.

Status	What this means
Core	You must take the set module for this component and you must pass. No failure can be permitted.
Core with Options	You can choose which module to study from the available options for this component but you must pass. No failure can be permitted.
Compulsory	You must take the set module for this component. There may be limited opportunities to continue on the course/be eligible for the qualification if you fail.
Compulsory with Options	You can choose which module to study from the available options for this component. There may be limited opportunities to continue on the course/be eligible for the qualification if you fail.
Optional	You can choose which module to study from the available options for this component. There may be limited opportunities to continue on the course/be eligible for the qualification if you fail.

The modules that are available for you to choose for each component will depend on several factors, including which modules you have chosen for other components, which modules you have completed in previous years of your course, and which term the module is taught in.

Modules

Modules are the individual units of study for your course. Each module has its own set of learning outcomes and assessment criteria and also carries a certain number of credits.

In most cases you will study one module per component, but in some cases you may need to study more than one module. For example, a 30-credit component may comprise of either one 30-credit module, or two 15-credit modules, depending on the options available.

Modules may be taught at different times of the year and by a different department or school to the one your course is primarily based in. You can find this information from the module code. For example, the module code HR100-4-FY means:

100

The department or school the module will be taught by.

In this example, the module would be taught by the Department of History.

The module number.

The UK academic level of the module.

A standard undergraduate course will comprise of level 4, 5 and 6 modules - increasing as you progress through the course.

A standard postgraduate taught course will comprise of level 7 modules.

A postgraduate research degree is a level 8 qualification.

The term the module will be taught in.

AU: Autumn term
SP: Spring term
SU: Summer term
FY: Full year
AP: Autumn and Spring terms
PS: Spring and Summer terms
AS: Autumn and Summer terms

COMPONENT 01: COMPULSORY

Psychology - Research

(0 CREDITS)

This module is for PhD students who are completing the research portions of their theses.

View Psychology - Research on our Module Directory

Dissertation

Students within our Department of Psychology submit a dissertation of up to 30,000 words for an MSD. We take pride in our completion record with our MSD students. We achieve this, in part, by ensuring from the outset that you follow a clear path to ensure completion within one year.

Fees and funding

Home/UK fee

TBC

International fee

£22,550 per year

Fees will increase for each academic year of study.

Masters fees and funding information

Research (e.g. PhD) fees and funding information

What's next

We hold Open Days for all our applicants throughout the year. Our Colchester Campus events are a great way to find out more about studying at Essex, and give you the chance to:

tour our campus and accommodation
find out answers to your questions about our courses, graduate employability, student support and more
talk to our Fees and Funding team about scholarship opportunities
meet our students and staff

If the dates of our organised events aren’t suitable for you, feel free to get in touch by emailing tours@essex.ac.uk and we’ll arrange an individual campus tour for you.

You can apply for this postgraduate course online. Before you apply, please check our information about necessary documents that we'll ask you to provide as part of your application.

We encourage you to make a preliminary enquiry directly to a potential supervisor or the Graduate Administrator within your chosen Department or School. We encourage the consideration of a brief research proposal prior to the submission of a full application.

We aim to respond to applications within four weeks. If we are able to offer you a place, you will be contacted via email.

For information on our deadline to apply for this course, please see our ‘how to apply' information.

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The University makes every effort to ensure that this information on its programme specification is accurate and up-to-date. Exceptionally it can be necessary to make changes, for example to courses, facilities or fees. Examples of such reasons might include, but are not limited to: strikes, other industrial action, staff illness, severe weather, fire, civil commotion, riot, invasion, terrorist attack or threat of terrorist attack (whether declared or not), natural disaster, restrictions imposed by government or public authorities, epidemic or pandemic disease, failure of public utilities or transport systems or the withdrawal/reduction of funding. Changes to courses may for example consist of variations to the content and method of delivery of programmes, courses and other services, to discontinue programmes, courses and other services and to merge or combine programmes or courses. The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will also keep students informed appropriately by updating our programme specifications. The University would inform and engage with you if your course was to be discontinued, and would provide you with options, where appropriate, in line with our Compensation and Refund Policy.

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