Univeristies

Hey!

So I’ve picked criminology to do as an undergraduate level at Durham or York and I want to become a criminal psychologist so would it be possible for me to do forensic psychology as a MSC level even though I’ve done a criminology degree not psychology.

Reply 1

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by Angelharris1

There isn't really a job called Criminal Psychologist in the UK, except on TV. The closest discipline would be that of a Forensic Psychologist.

If you want to be a practicing psychologist in the UK then you must obtain a qualification which is approved by the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC). For Forensic Psychology there are currently only 13 such programmes. You can see a list here, and will note that most of them are doctorates.

To gain access to one of the above courses you will need to do one of two things.
• Hold an undergraduate degree which is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and which confer Graduate Basic for Chartered membership of the society (often abbreviated to GBC).
- or -
• Hold any undergraduate degree and then follow it with a Conversion Course (which is itself a Master's degree) which is BPS-accredited and confers GBC.

So if you're planning to pursue an undergraduate degree in Criminology, you'll need to take the second if the above routes.

You can find a list of accredited conversion courses on the BPS web site, here.