does it matter if the course I'm doing doesn't have a BPS accreditation?

I would really like to do psychology and criminology next year at Loughborough university next year, but the course doesn't give you a BPS accredited qualification. Does it matter? Does having a BPS qualification help if I want to do a masters later on for psychology?

If you want to work in the field you should really do an accredited course; most employers will look for this. The BPS website says:

"Do I need to take a course that is accredited?

Our advice to students is always to choose a BPS accredited course to maximise your future options.
Taking a BPS accredited undergraduate or conversion course confers eligibility for the GBC.
GBC is required for Chartered status. The vast majority of postgraduate programmes accredited by the HCPC for registration as a practitioner psychologist also require GBC. Taking a BPS accredited Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) course is currently the only way to achieve qualification as a psychological wellbeing practitioner."

Read this for further information.

My advice would be to go for a degree that does give you BPS accreditation because it opens doors for you after you complete your degree, that way you wont be limited to only a few options like you would if you didnt get the accreditation.
There are a lot of other unis that offer a Bps accredited psychology with criminology. Here are a few suggestions, you might wanna look around a bit more though:
-Birmingham city uni
-University of west England
-Middlesex
-Southampton
-University of south wales
-Brighton
-Buckinghamshire New

Hi.

Firstly, employers outside of psychology dont care if its BPS accredited - and given that the huge majority of students dont go on to become applied professional psychologists then it doesn't concern most people.

Secondly, you can do a masters in psychology with no psychology degree in some cases - masters degrees really differ widely and lots of them just require a broadly relevant degree. Depends what kind of masters you want though, and if your using it to become a professional psychologist then you'd need a BPS accredited degree anyway.

Finally, the most worrying thing is that the minimum requirements are not that high for having BPS acreditation - most unis cover the minimum required topics very quickly. The fact that it isn't BPS accredited suggests that the degree is not good enough (i.e. goes at a very slow pace ) and cannot cover the basics in enough time. Or, it could mean that they don't have enough psychology lecturers to cover all the topics -- either way it's a bit worrying!

I would really like to do psychology and criminology next year at Loughborough university next year, but the course doesn't give you a BPS accredited qualification. Does it matter? Does having a BPS qualification help if I want to do a masters later on for psychology?

Hi ricefarmer

Great to hear that you are considering studying with us I have contacted Psychology to ask them for information on this and they have replied with the following reassurance:

'We expect that Psychology with Criminology will have BPS accreditation in time for 2016 entry. The BPS accreditation is crucial for someone wanting to pursue a career in professional psychology (counselling, educational, forensic, etc.) which may include masters and doctoral studies. For other types of careers BPS accreditation is not essential.'

I hope this helps. If you would like to discuss the course in more detail, you can contact them directly on (01509) 223365 or [email protected].

Amy