Psychology Degree - Southampton or Portsmouth?

Southamptonnnnn! But then again, maybe I’m biased because I go there and do psychology! I had the same decision - Portsmouth and Southampton and in the end I went with Southampton because the module options were so much better for me, and it also offered the opportunity to study a minor along side psychology but still to get BPS accreditation. We get to choose two modules a year for year one and two which appealed to me, whereas many undergrad courses don’t have options for year one/they are limited - I could literally choose modules from so many different disciplines.

So far I’ve found lecturers to be super understanding and responsive to things like emails - I emailed my personal tutor and within an hour had a response and he made time to see me that day. Obviously I can only speak for Southampton but I’m really enjoying it so far!

No problem! And that’s absolutely fine - ask away!

I will be studying anthropology as my minor (from next semester) - and you certainly can do a language, the only difference being that you start that straight away in semester 1 of first year (but you can sign up to do it in the first couple of weeks so you don’t have to choose straight away). Off the top of my head you can do French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Latin and Chinese as a minor? And you choose what stage you want to start at - stage 1 is basic pre/GCSE type stuff and then throughout you would work your way through the stages, but you can choose to start at stage 3 for example if you wanted. (Hopefully that makes sense 😂)

If you go on the Southampton Uni website go to University Life, then teaching and learning there should be a page on minors there - it tells you what you can choose from (although some minors are not allowed with psychology like criminology because you can apply for that as a degree in its own right on UCAS whereas you can’t apply for say psych and Spanish?)

So far the work load has been very manageable for me - and that’s coming from someone who likes to try and make everything 10 times longer than it needs to be! I’m in 10/11 hours a week this semester and they say to do two hours of work outside of lectures for every hour you’re in, but this semester especially is a lot of recapping a Level things - there’s a lot of reading though, but I quite enjoy reading! So far we’ve had one assignment set but we got to choose the title and topic for it which has made it more enjoyable to write! I’d say on average I’ve spent maybe 25/30 hours a week (including lecture time) working at the moment! One module we get set ‘homework’ for because we are split into tutor groups with the other people who have the same personal tutor as us, but they’ve been fairly simple tasks like finding books in the library etc that haven’t taken long at all

Gaa!!! This is really helpful! Thank you!
I was worried I would be drowning in like 45 hours of work a week and I would find it really hard, but this doesn't make it seem too overwhelming.
I'm not doing Psychology at A-level at the moment, but the Psychology degree modules looked super interesting to me. I'm just hoping that it will get really passionate about it, which will probably make things a lot easier when studying.
Although you haven't started your minor yet, do you know what proportion of your 'study time' that would take up?

Ok, so in a few days time I'm going to submit my Uni Application for Psychology.
However I'm trying to decide whether to put Southampton or Portsmouth as my first choice. But I have literally no idea which one to pick.

Ok, so in a few days time I'm going to submit my Uni Application for Psychology.
However I'm trying to decide whether to put Southampton or Portsmouth as my first choice. But I have literally no idea which one to pick.

So I'm just looking for opinions on Psychology at the two Unis or just general advice.

Any help will be great! (I've babbled on a bit below, in case it helps)

I like Southampton because I will be able to live at home - therefore it's cheaper (no accommodation fees) and I've got friends who will still be at college that I can hang out with. I am enjoying my life how it is at the moment and if I stay local I will be able to still do the same fun clubs (e.g. 6-a-side footie and badminton) with the same friends.
However in terms of the course I get the impression that Psychology at Southampton might be a little dull from what I've heard and the open day talk wasn't particular exciting. Student satifaction for Psychology at Southampton seems quite low too (only 75%).
But then again Southampton is a Russel Group Uni (and Portsmouth isn't)
which could help me out when looking for a job, maybe?)

I like Portsmouth because the course looks really exciting - the open day talk was great. Student satifaction is also a lot higher than at Southampton (90% for Portsmouth) and Unistats tells me that a higher percentage of Portsmouth students get first class degrees than Southampton students (which really surprised me considering Southampton has higher entry requirements).
28% got firsts at Portmouth vs 20% at Southampton. Therefore I feel like Psychology at Portsmouth is maybe a better than at Southampton.

However I don't really like Portsmouth as a city. Southampton has Southampton common, but Portsmouth seems really built up and industrial which doesn't appeal to me (I live in a small country village). I also don't like the idea of living away from home, due to the extra cost and the fact that I'm not very good at making new friends (I'm a bit socially awkward and all the friends I've got I've had since I was little). I'm not bothered about going to parties to be honest and I'm just worried I won't fit in with new people (I've always struggled to fit in to be honest).


What are your thoughts?

No problem! And that’s absolutely fine - ask away!

I will be studying anthropology as my minor (from next semester) - and you certainly can do a language, the only difference being that you start that straight away in semester 1 of first year (but you can sign up to do it in the first couple of weeks so you don’t have to choose straight away). Off the top of my head you can do French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Latin and Chinese as a minor? And you choose what stage you want to start at - stage 1 is basic pre/GCSE type stuff and then throughout you would work your way through the stages, but you can choose to start at stage 3 for example if you wanted. (Hopefully that makes sense 😂)

If you go on the Southampton Uni website go to University Life, then teaching and learning there should be a page on minors there - it tells you what you can choose from (although some minors are not allowed with psychology like criminology because you can apply for that as a degree in its own right on UCAS whereas you can’t apply for say psych and Spanish?)

So far the work load has been very manageable for me - and that’s coming from someone who likes to try and make everything 10 times longer than it needs to be! I’m in 10/11 hours a week this semester and they say to do two hours of work outside of lectures for every hour you’re in, but this semester especially is a lot of recapping a Level things - there’s a lot of reading though, but I quite enjoy reading! So far we’ve had one assignment set but we got to choose the title and topic for it which has made it more enjoyable to write! I’d say on average I’ve spent maybe 25/30 hours a week (including lecture time) working at the moment! One module we get set ‘homework’ for because we are split into tutor groups with the other people who have the same personal tutor as us, but they’ve been fairly simple tasks like finding books in the library etc that haven’t taken long at all