Good uni for conversion to Psychology?

Wow! Thank you! I am looking for a distance learning conversion course now and reading your honest and insightful response above was quite invaluable. You have brought excellent points forward that need very serious consideration for all looking at this type of course. Currently, I am favouring Robert Gordon Uni in Aberdeen as I am unable to relocate. Do you have any opinion on that as a suitable choice?

Indeed, any advice is greatly appreciated as I am a mature student with two young children (school age), serious about developing a new career in Psychology. Needless to say, time and money are both extremely valuable and hard to come by commodities in my household :-) so I must invest wisely and minimise the detrimental effect on my family as much as humanly possible. I simply can't fail if I undertake the course and it must be relevant or I will have let my family sacrifice for nothing. I have checked it is accredited with BPS and all is good, I have strong links with my local community agencies, am undertaking ELSA training, completing a Psychotherapeutic Counselling course and working part-time as 1-1 SENCO Primary Support. My goal is be well-rounded in child psychology but, most importantly of all, to be able to offer effective contribution to the lives of children and adolescents I work with.

Sorry this is so long. :-)

I graduated from the MSc Psychology conversion course at Glasgow Uni in 2010 - send me a message if you want any specific info or an overview of the course.

It really depends what you’re wanting to do. A conversion masters after an undergraduate degree in the UK sometimes confuses employers as it doesn’t really add anything in most cases, unless your undergraduate degree didn’t give you GBC.

If you’re an international student the GBC might be an advantage if your undergraduate degree doesn’t give you that but unless you’re going for a professional psychologist role, there’s not much point in it.

Psychology graduates are attractive to a lot of employers for their research and statistics skills. An MRes might be a better option for you if that’s the kind of job you’re going for. This would also be useful if you’re going for a doctorate if any kind, professional or academic.

Thanks, giella.
The reason I'm doing a conversion course is that my undergraduate degree was a BA Economics Honours. Suppose I wanted to do a PhD after this course, would it be possible? Or is a conversion Psychology course simply a stepping stone for a different specialised Master's course? That's what I'm worried about the most.

Hey, I also faced a similar dilemma. I have received an offer from the Univ of Nottingham and waiting to hear from St Andrews and Bristol. I declined Edinburgh and Essex.

I have an undergrad of Bcom Hons from Delhi University and switching my discipline through the conversion MSc as that will prove to be a headstart in the Psychology domain. Definitely, it will be one year of rigorous studies as we start from scratch and eventually cover a lot within a small span. I have spoken to a lot of people who have done this course, some have taken up a research assistantship after that, some were doing a specialised masters and fortunately some also got into Ph.D. after a 6 month research assistantship so ultimately it depends on the profile also and vision of research capacities but I just want you to know from all the homework I did around this made me believe nothing is impossible with this course and its a basic notion believed by any employer that an undergrad Psychology student has learnt more over 3 years span but people like us have no fewer options- we can give our best shot. Since these are BPS accredited- a good point. For some of us willing to switch our disciplines- this is the best available route I could figure out. Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any more questions, thanks!

Thank you so much for this response! It really helped

Hey, did you firm Glasgow? Did you also apply to St Andrews? Thanks

Hey, I have received an offer from Glasgow. I have not applied to St. Andrews though. Also applied to Edinburgh and York.

Okay great, congratulations Have you heard back from Edinburgh and York?

I received offers from St Andrews, Nottingham and Edinburgh for Psych conversion. Thanks

I graduated from the MSc Psychology conversion course at Glasgow Uni in 2010 - send me a message if you want any specific info or an overview of the course.