Undergraduate study

Our department offers both a BSc Psychology and a BA Psychology.

With these courses the only difference is the award you receive when you graduate, you'll receive either a Bachelor of Science or a Bachelor of Arts. The modules you take are the same for both degrees, you will be taught by the same lecturers, and have access to the same facilities.

What's more important is whether a degree is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS). You can find more information about this on our course listings. Otherwise it is simply down to personal choice – would you prefer to have a BSc or a BA? Because these courses share the same modules, you can change your mind about which exit award best suits you and your future career plans – simply let our Professional Services colleagues know and they will update your record.

We provide one of the most immersive and exciting opportunities to study psychology through collaborating with our researchers. Our Research Experience Scheme is designed to help you become more familiar with the process of academic research by working one-on-one with a psychologist as their research assistant. Throughout the year, academics will advertise for undergraduate students to get hands-on with a research project, whether it’s helping plan experiments, recruit and test participants, or analyse data.

You will gain a deeper insight into how real-world research is conducted from initial ideas and the details of carrying out research, to the conclusions that you might be able to draw about human experience. The research scheme might inspire your final year project, and help you decide whether to pursue research as a future career.

And even if you know postgraduate study isn’t for you, then it will help build your experience, skills, and confidence in project management and collaborative working. Your supervisor will also be ideally placed to provide you with a personalised reference when applying for jobs.

As a student of psychology, you have a unique opportunity to understand the world around you by taking an immersive exploration into how people think, interact and experience their worlds. Our department has developed a research-led teaching model that embeds essential, work-relevant skills across all modules.

You will find innovative solutions to a variety of global challenges through a problem-based learning approach that combines knowledge from all areas of psychology, all while developing and applying sought-after skills that employers look for: become an expert in problem-solving, data analytics, statistics, report writing, and communication, through learning from world-leading experts engaged in cutting-edge research in psychology in the classroom, the laboratory, and the field.

You will develop and apply diverse skills that will be relevant across different career paths within every module. We will teach you how to break down complex concepts and communicate them. Crucially, our unique approach to learning and research means that you will learn to look at problems through different lenses.

For example, learn from experts on health and wellbeing how people make important health decisions (e.g., what motivates someone to get a vaccine? How do people develop healthy eating and exercise habits?)

You will learn how to answer these, and other important psychological questions, by employing a holistic approach:

• How do people think about getting vaccinations (e.g., what information do they seek; how do they use this information?)
• How do we interact with people who are worried about getting vaccinated (e.g., what are best ways to communicate the benefits or drawbacks of vaccinations?)
• How do people experience vaccinations (e.g., what causes anxiety around going to vaccination centres?)

You will also learn how to employ critical analysis and statistical skills, such as identifying patterns in data (e.g., are there particular groups who are more willing to get vaccinations?) and we will teach you how to communicate your findings (e.g., create an infographic that showcases the benefits of vaccination).

At Essex, you will build a toolkit for life that will make you a strong candidate for a wide range of jobs both within and outside fields of psychology.

Undertaking a psychology degree doesn’t mean you have to become a psychologist. Psychology is increasingly important for a range of areas including education, training, industry, sports, and legal and health matters. The skills and knowledge that you develop with us can be applied to a host of roles across multiple sectors.

Our graduates have followed diverse career paths in a variety of organisations:

• Public sector, including with the Civil Service in the Ministry of Justice and the Prison and Probation Service, healthcare through the NHS, and in education as primary school teachers and special educational needs support staff.
• Private sector, including financial institutions such as M&G Investments, professional services organisations such as Accenture, and media groups including the BBC.
• Third-sector organisations, including mental health charities such as Mind.
• Alternative routes, such as starting a business, or following an academic career by undertaking a research degree.

And of course, many of our students have gone on to careers within psychology including counselling, clinical psychology, and educational psychology.

Some of our graduates return to us for further study by opting for a Masters degree. An MSc in psychology or cognitive neuroscience can enhance your research skills and give you the necessary boost for a promotion, or it may help you decide on a career change.

Our teaching and research is led by academics who are experts in their specialist fields of interest. We have a diverse range of expertise, from studying the impact of mask-wearing on deaf communities, to understanding how we can encourage the public to “think green”, and how inequality impacts on the way individuals view the world. Our work is highly interdisciplinary, and we collaborate with our academic colleagues in the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, the Department of Mathematical Sciences, and the School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences.

Our research feeds in to our teaching, so you benefit directly from the work we carry out, the papers we publish, and the impact we have on society.

We emphasise this expertise through our research seminar series. Throughout the academic year, we host academics from other institutions who present their latest work to our department. We encourage our undergraduates to attend these seminars, so you can learn more about research in the wider psychology community and benefit from additional expertise in other areas.

The work of our staff has been recognised through various awards. In 2022 Dr Veronica Lamarche received an Excellence in Education Award for her work on diversity and inclusion, and staff including Dr Miroslav Sirota, Dr Jordi Asher, and Dr Maxwell Roberts, were recognised for their achievements in research and impact.

Our department is set up with all the facilities you need for psychology research.

Our Centre for Brain Science is home to a range of physiological measurement systems (for measuring heart rate, skin temperature, galvanic skin response), as well as eye-tracking technology, Electroencephalography (EEG, a non-invasive way of tracking brain activity), near infra-red spectroscopy (NIRS, which records changes in blood oxygen levels), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS, a non-invasive way of stimulating parts of the brain), and a dedicated virtual reality suite.

We are also home to the Essex Babylab, where some of our developmental psychologists discover how babies and infants develop as they grow, including understanding how we develop and acquire language, and how we come to recognise our “self”.

Many of our courses can be extended for a year by undertaking a work placement or spending a year studying abroad.

A placement year is an ideal way for you to gain relevant work experience and apply what you’ve learned to a professional, real-world, context. With help from our department and the University’s Student Development team, you will select and apply for placement opportunities that interest you. You can choose what to apply for, whether you want to remain close to the University of Essex and apply for opportunities in the local area, or save money by finding something closer to home if you live further afield.

Alternatively, undertaking a year abroad in another country to study at one of our partner universities can mean stretching your wings and experiencing another language and culture. You don’t need to go far – we have partnerships with institutions across Europe. But if travel is something that excites you, then you can explore opportunities in South Korea, Australia, Canada, and many more.

Signing up to a degree including one of these years doesn’t commit you to going. We know that things change, so if you decide you no longer want to undertake a placement year, or don’t want to go abroad, we can swap you on to a standard three-year degree.

We offer a range of undergraduate courses, including our BSc Psychology with Economics, which gives you the opportunity to study modules offered by our Department of Economics.

In your final year you will benefit from a wide variety of optional modules, which enable you to build a programme of study that reflects and hones your interests. Our modules cover core areas of psychology with a specialist twist including ageing and the impact of neurodegenerative diseases, decision-making, and human sexuality and relationships.

If you have a particular career in mind then you can choose modules that give you a head start on gaining suitable knowledge and experience. But even if you’re not sure what your future holds, you may find an area that has always intrigued you and have the opportunity to discover more. 

We offer integrated Masters degrees in Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience, and Psychology with Advanced Research Methods.

An integrated Masters degree is a four year degree which allows you to finish your time at Essex with a Master of Science (MSc) qualification. It is an ideal option if you are already considering a Postgraduate Taught degree after finishing your undergraduate studies (for example if you know it will be required in your career path or if you are planning on doing a research degree in the future). 

You will still have the same modules and the same access to facilities as other students. An integrated degree simply means that you do not need to apply separately to stay on after your final year of undergraduate study.

Many of our degrees are accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS). Accreditation is a sign that our courses have been successfully tested against a set of rigorous external criteria, set by professional experts in the field of psychology. BPS accreditation opens up further education routes that can lead to you specialising in areas such as clinical psychology or educational psychology.

If you finish a BPS-accredited degree with a minimum exit award of 2.2 then you can apply for graduate BPS membership. This is the first step towards becoming a chartered psychologist, and opens up further education routes that can lead to you specialising in areas such as clinical psychology or educational psychology.

We are an international community of psychology experts from a diverse range of backgrounds. Some of us have always known we wanted to study psychology, and some have come to academia later in life after following other career paths. But we are united by our focus on understanding our place in the world through psychological science.

By joining our department you will become part of our community. You will learn and work alongside staff and fellow students who are passionate about uncovering how we think, interact with, and experience the world.

As a department we host events throughout the year including our annual Christmas party, while our vibrant Psychology Society runs regular social events such as coffee morning catch-ups, and walk-and-talks. We keep you up-to-date with all the latest student news on twitter and through our monthly psychology newsletter. We’re always keen to hear from students about what they enjoy so have your say on the student-focused events that you want to see in the future.

But we also know that university is more than your degree. Our Students’ Union hosts a broad range of sports teams, and cultural and activity societies including the Bookish Society, the St John Ambulance Society, and the Debating Society, which are open to all students.