MPhil/PhD in Psychology

Our postgraduate research degree (MPhil/PhD) in Psychology is awarded for a thesis reporting original research by a student under the supervision of, typically, two members of staff. Very occasionally, the department is also able to take on a student undertaking a PhD by Published Work.

Our programme can enable postgraduate training for a career as an academic researcher, but also serves as excellent preparation for a career as a professional psychologist (e.g., clinical, organisational, or school psychologist), or as a consultant or professional in different fields of industry.

In addition to subject-related knowledge, a Psychology research degree provides valuable transferable skills in data analysis and management, written and oral communication, teamwork and time management.

PhD students are initially registered for an MPhil (PhD Track) with the expectation that their registration will be upgraded to the full PhD contingent upon satisfactory progress. Such upgrades normally take place at the first annual review 9-12 months into your studies (18–24 months for part-time students).
 

Our research

Behavioural Science

• Economic and consumer psychology
• Judgement, risk and decision-making
• Psychology and the law
• Computational modelling of human behaviour
• Attention, visual processing and emotional processing
• Folk economics, inequality, and behavioural political science

Language and Learning

• Reading; word recognition
• Computational approaches to language processing
• Historical language change
• Structure of the lexicon across life-span
• Big Data research on language
• Language and gesture development in infants and children
• Second language learning
• Language learning and change
• Gesture and non-verbal communication in adults and children
• Development of social cognition
• Animal (e.g., orangutangs, chimpanzees, birds) communication and cognition
• Language evolution
• Sleep and language learning
• Socio-economic status and child language development
• Language development and socio-economic status

Lifespan Health and Wellbeing

• Longitudinal epidemiology
• Experimental psychology and clinical studies, with common interests in the factors that determine and/or the mechanisms that underlie healthy living
• Child and adolescent development and ageing
• Mental health, sleep and pain
• Disaster recovery
• Culture, relationships, beliefs, personality, and well-being

Minimum requirements

2:i undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in Psychology or a related subject.

English language requirements
 

• Band B
• IELTS overall score of 7.0, minimum component scores of two at 6.0/6.5 and the rest at 7.0 or above.
   

The University carries out an initial fee status assessment based on information provided in the application and according to the guidance published by UKCISA. Students are classified as either Home or Overseas Fee status and this can determine the tuition fee and eligibility of certain scholarships and financial support.

If you receive an offer, your fee status will be stated with the tuition fee information, however we are awaiting guidance from the UK government regarding fee status for EU, other EEA and Swiss nationals and their family members living in the UK for academic year 2021/22 onwards. We are not able to confirm the fee status for these students until the relevant eligibility criteria have been confirmed. Once we have received further information from the UK government, we will provide you with an update on your fee status and let you know if any additional information is required. If you believe your fee status has been incorrectly classified you can complete a fee status assessment questionnaire (follow the instructions in your offer) and provide the required documentation for this to be reassessed.