Masters/conversion courses

Hi guys. I studied my psychology honours degree in South Africa. I assumed that as my honours degree is not from the UK I need to do a conversion course for my Masters. I have just realised that it is possible to get your degree assessed by BPS but I’ve already registered for a Masters conversion course. Just wondering is it worth it to apply to assess if my honours degree would be BPS approved and then try applying for a normal masters or should I just continue with doing a Masters Conversion course?? I’m studying with Open Uni by the way. Would appreciate advise

Whilst you should take all application for masters' seriously, I think the main priority would be to get your degree assessed first.

If your degree is accredited, it would be pointless to do a conversion course. If your degree isn't, then you could always apply for a conversion degree later. However, in the former, you would be saving yourself significant amount of money as well as possibly time.

Thanks for the response.. I should probably clarify that I had intended to do Masters anyway..
it’s just that as I assumed that as my Honours is from another country I had TO registered for a Conversion qualification when choosing a Masters qualification. Now, as I’m aware that my honours could be assessed and possibly accredited.. I’m just confused between continuing with my registration for the conversion course, or cancel it find out if my honours can be accredited, and if it is then do a normal Masters with open university which doesn’t allow u to register for a BPS registration..
Hope I’m making sense

I should probably clarify that I had intended to do Masters anyway..
By all means, do a master's. It's generally recommended that people do a master's should they wish to go into psychology as a profession.
If you can get away with going straight into a PhD (should you wish to become a clinical psychologist), then it's preferrable than doing a master's though. The thing is, it's ridiculously competitive to be accepted onto a doctorate for clinical psychology, and it's even rarer for someone to go straight onto the doctorate without doing a master's prior.

I’m just confused between continuing with my registration for the conversion course, or cancel it find out if my honours can be accredited, and if it is then do a normal Masters with open university which doesn’t allow u to register for a BPS registration..
I would cancel it. Should you wish to do a non-conversion master's then you would end up paying for the second master's yourself (as far as I know, psychologists isn't an allied health profession, so you won't get any funding from the NHS, and under the UK's ELQ policy they won't fund you for your second master's, assuming that you have UK residential status and are eligible for student finance).
Also, if you already did an undergrad in psychology, there is a strong chance that the conversion master's would be repeating more or less the same material that you did for your undergrad, especially if you later find out that your undergrad is BPS accredited (the accreditation likely depends on whether you have covered enough of the material to receive the status).

Hi, I really appreciate your responses. I'm just confused about what you mean regarding a "2nd masters" .. don't you do your masters once and then go on to PHD/Doctorate if you're lucky.. also,I'll have to fund my Masters degree myself as I don't qualify for a UK post-grad loan since I haven't been here long enough.

Lastly would having a conversion Masters impact me negatively if I wanted to get into PHD/Doctorate?

You've helped me understand things a whole lot clearer. Thank you so much..much appreciated.

@NataliaX07
There are some points in the advice you have been given that need to be corrected.

To become a psychologist of any kind you need to go on and do doctorate level studying - this could be in educational psychology or clinical psychology.

Typically you need a good strong psychology degree in order to get onto a PhD program, it is very very competitive and you will need some experience along side it to stand out from the crowd. an MSc Psychology conversion is NOT the same as 'half a bachelors' at all - it is worth the same number of credits as any other masters program, the purpose is to fast track someone with academic skills into a new area. I got a 1st in Sociology and years later did an MSc conversion in Psychology. You do not need the Masters to become a psychologist, you can leap frog it, but there are advantages to having one (it allows me to access funding for student support)

If you do a Psychology Masters make sure it is fully accredited with the BPS like the course at Arden University

Marc
Arden University Student Ambassador

Thank you Marc!
I'll look into Arden