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MSc Psychology

MSc Psychology

Award

MSc

Start Date

To be confirmed

Duration

18 months

Mode

Full-time

Location

University of Bolton

Are you a psychology graduate who wants to develop your knowledge even further or is particularly interested in a career in psychology? Completing the University of Bolton's MSc Psychology will support you to progress into more advanced study or graduate-level roles in professional areas of psychology that require doctoral-level study.

Apply Now Download Prospectus Programme Specification

Course Overview

The University of Bolton was one of the first to establish a degree course in the subject of psychology, and our department has a well-respected, vibrant learning and research culture. Our MSc Psychology offers you the opportunity to build on the knowledge and understanding you gained during your undergraduate studies, developing your intellectual and thinking skills to a very high standard and enhancing your independent research abilities.

Our highly skilled and experienced staff will focus on maximising your potential. We'll guide and encourage you to develop an advanced critical appreciation of contemporary methods, theories and issues in psychology, highlighting the links between your research and clinical practice. You'll apply your research and analysis skills to a substantial piece of independent research, demonstrating your understanding of relevant ethical issues in context.

The course is also designed to enhance your psychological practice, opening employment and career progression opportunities in a diverse range of careers, including psychology and therapy, the helping or health professions, social work, education, private practice, human resources and retail management.

Highlights

Key Features

Entry Requirements

Where changes are made to material information contained in this course description or a decision is taken to suspend a course between the offer of admissions and enrolment, we will inform applicants at the earliest possible opportunity and will outline the various options available to the applicant.

Career Opportunities

The University of Bolton's MSc Psychology is for psychology graduates who wish to develop their knowledge to an advanced level or are particularly interested in enhancing their skill set in preparation for a career in psychology. By studying this course, you can develop an advanced critical appreciation of contemporary methods, theories and issues in psychology, and build upon and enhance the skills you acquired from your undergraduate studies.

We'll support you as you further develop your skills in research and analysis and apply them to a substantial piece of independent research. By successfully completing our course, you'll develop enhanced academic skills and the ability to formulate arguments supported by relevant evidence. You'll also possess greater problem-solving skills, interpersonal awareness, communication, teamwork, and IT and data handling skills.

What can I do with this qualification?

A postgraduate qualification in psychology can enhance your skills for a diverse range of careers, including human resources, retail management, marketing and professions associated with medicine.

Careers directly related to psychology, such as clinical psychology, educational psychology and occupational psychology, require postgraduate study on accredited higher degrees and professional doctorates.

Psychology graduates can also progress to graduate schemes which are long-term employment contracts, usually with a large corporate company offering advanced training packages.

Alternative career options

Although some psychology graduates become professional psychologists, many others go on work in related fields. Graduates can use this qualification as a stepping-stone into various careers, bearing in mind that some of these roles may require relevant experience and/or postgraduate study. Some possibilities include:

  • Teaching and education
  • Careers guidance
  • Human resources
  • Probation services
  • Prison services
  • Social work
  • Counselling
  • Family mediation and support
  • Nursing
  • Police
  • Media and advertising
  • Communications
  • Sport and recreation
  • Brand consultancy
  • Advertising
  • Child protection
  • Sales
  • Youth work
Fees & Funding

Please note the total course fee for a Home student starting this course in 2023/24 will be £7,920. As this is an 18-month course, the fees are £5,280 for the first year and £2,640 for the final semester.

Home/EU Fees

No fee information is currently available, please contact the University of Bolton’s Academic Fees team by emailing AcademicFees@bolton.ac.uk for more information.

International Fees

No fee information is currently available, please contact the University of Bolton’s Academic Fees team by emailing AcademicFees@bolton.ac.uk for more information.

Bursaries

Click here for more information on our Master's Bursaries.

Important note regarding tuition fees for the 2025-26 academic year: EU nationals who meet residency requirements (have settled or pre-settled status) may be eligible for 'Home' fee status. If you do not meet these residency requirements, overseas fees will apply. Irish citizens living in the UK or Ireland will be eligible for 'Home' fee status under the Common Travel Area arrangement. Please read the student finance for EU students web page on www.gov.uk for information.

The fees for a student's course of study will be set for the normal duration of that course subject only to inflationary increases – measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded in March each year to take effect for subsequent start dates.

How to apply

Home Applicants

You may apply directly to the University using the University's online application form. Please select your chosen start date from the list below:

You should have to hand:

  • Details of the educational establishments you attended and dates

  • Your certificates for the qualifications you are using to gain entry to the course – you will need to enter the completion date and upload copies

  • Details of any employment history including name, address, dates and role

  • Personal statement – this can be either input into the relevant field or uploaded separately

  • Details including e-mail addresses of two referees, at least one of which should be someone who can provide an academic reference

Please make sure any documents you wish to upload in support of your application are in pdf or jpeg format. Personal statements may be word documents.

Please ensure your data is correct at each stage of the application before you proceed to the next page. If you use the back button at any time during the application, you should check the validity of the data you have already input.

If you experience difficulties during the application process, contact the Admissions Team on 01204 903394 or admissions-team@bolton.ac.uk

International Applicants

The University welcomes applications from international students from all over the world. We try to make the application process as simple and as fast as possible for our international applicants.

This course is not currently accepting international online applications.

Please contact Admissions by telephone on 01204 903903 or email enquiries@bolton.ac.uk

Admissions
University of Bolton
Deane Road
Bolton, BL3 5AB
United Kingdom

Tel: 01204 903903
Email: enquiries@bolton.ac.uk

Teaching & Assessment

Our psychology department's overall teaching and learning strategy is student-centred. We use a blended approach involving face-to-face sessions, sometimes one-to-one, and online learning. We promote active learning through workshops, seminars and tutorials, self-directed and guided study, lectures, IT sessions and video viewing and analysis. The University’s e-learning portal Moodle will support your online learning.

We'll expect you to undertake considerable independent learning, including independent literature searching, reading, completing work for seminars, and preparing for workshops, presentations or group discussions. In addition to the taught components, some modules will have online resources and activities to complete.

Assessment serves several functions with the obvious and primary function being to evaluate your achievement of the stated learning outcomes. However, the assessment also serves to help you organise and develop your learning. Feedback from the assessment can help you develop your skills and understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses. We may require you to complete reports, essays, presentations, literature reviews, reviews of journal articles, write up laboratory tasks, and complete short question and answer tasks (related to statistical analysis), reflective journals and case studies.

Modules

The modules listed below may be a mixture of compulsory and optional. You may not have the opportunity to study all the modules shown as part of the course.

  • Psychological and Social Research: Review, Evaluation and Design
  • Quantitative Inquiry 1
  • Qualitative Inquiry
  • Quantitative Inquiry 2
  • Advanced Social and Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Social Neuroscience Techniques
  • Social Neuroscience Laboratory Practical
  • Foundations of Positive Psychology
  • Positive Psychology in Practice
  • Critical Positive Psychology
  • Psychology Dissertation
  • Current Debates in Psychology

Assessment methods

Level Assessment method
Level 1 Coursework 100%

Learning Activities

Level Activity
Level 1 Guided independent study 85%
Scheduled learning and teaching activities 15%

The university will use all reasonable endeavours to deliver your course as described in its published material and the programme specification for the academic year in which you begin your course. The university considers changes to courses very carefully and the university will minimise any changes. Please be aware that our courses are subject to review on an ongoing basis and changes may be necessary due to legitimate staffing, financial, regulatory and academic reasons. The content of course modules and mode of associated assessments may be updated on an annual basis. This is to ensure that all modules are up-to-date and responsive to employment and sector needs. The published course material and the programme specification contain indicative ‘optional modules’ that may be subject to change due to circumstances outside of our control. For this reason, we cannot guarantee to run any specific optional module.

Programme Contacts

Help Centre

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Help Centre

We have the answers to your questions, find all the advice and support in one place.

Part of the University of Bolton Group

Bolton college
Alliance learning
Anderton centre2
QQA Scheme Participant