MSc in Psychology Conversion
Saint Andrews, United Kingdom
MSc
DURATION
1 year
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
07 Aug 2026
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2026
TUITION FEES
GBP 29,950 *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* overseas | home: £11,680
Fast-track counseling
By contacting the school, you'll get access to free priority counselling for any study and application questions.
Key Summary
The MSc in Psychology is a conversion route for students who hold an undergraduate Honours degree in a subject other than psychology. The programme provides a detailed knowledge of the core areas of psychology and principal theoretical and methodological issues in the field.
Course details
The MSc in Psychology (Conversion) is a full-time taught postgraduate programme run by the School of Psychology and Neuroscience.
Highlights
- The course equips students with the necessary skills to pursue a research degree at an MPhil or PhD level in psychology or to go on to a clinical training programme.
- Students have access to laboratories in neurophysiology, psychopharmacology, psychophysics, animal learning and cognition, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology and social psychology.
- The course is accredited by the British Psychological Society and therefore fulfils the requirements for entry to most UK PhD programmes in psychology.
The modules published below are examples of what has been taught in previous academic years and may be subject to change before you start your programme. For more details of each module, including weekly contact hours, teaching methods and assessment.
Compulsory
- Assessment in Clinical Psychology: presents psychopathological conditions and provides a basic understanding of the underlying neuronal and cognitive-behavioural mechanisms.
- Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience (provides an understanding of psychological knowledge in several interrelated domains concerned with the biological bases of behaviour) or Evolutionary and Comparative Psychology (provides an understanding of major evolutionary forces and how they have shaped animal and human behavioural capacities).
- Conceptual Issues and Theoretical Perspectives: addresses the historical and philosophical background to current debates in psychology.
- Developmental Psychology: offers a broad perspective spanning infancy to childhood, and a range of key topics in cognitive and social development.
- Generic Research and Professional Skills in Psychology and Neuroscience: introduces students to the various skills and issues that are important to academic psychologists and neuroscientists irrespective of their particular area of research.
- Methods of Data Analysis in Psychology: advanced training in research design, statistics, qualitative methods and modelling.
- Perception (develops an understanding of visual perception and its functions) or Cognition (develops an understanding of human memory and attention).
- Quantitative Research in Social Science: provides an introduction to the fundamental concepts of quantitative analysis - underlying principles, research design, sampling strategies, uncertainty and missing data, and some statistical approaches to data analysis.
- Social Psychology: explores in-depth key topics across the breadth of social psychological enquiry.
Dissertation
Student dissertations will be supervised by members of the teaching staff who will advise on the choice of subject and provide guidance throughout the research process. The completed dissertation of not more than 15,000 words must be submitted by a date specified in August.
Teaching
Teaching format
Over two semesters, students will take nine compulsory modules. The modules are taught through lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials.
Class sizes range up to 150 students for lectures and up to 25 students for seminars, workshops, and tutorials.
For modules focusing on core psychological knowledge, lectures are shared with undergraduates in the Honours programme.
The final three months of your course will be dedicated to a 15,000-word research project dissertation.
Assessment
Assessment comprises entirely of coursework; there are no exams.
Support
In addition to the support provided by the research project supervisor and module coordinators, there is a dedicated team of staff offering support for students.
The University of St Andrews is committed to attracting the very best students, regardless of financial circumstances.
15% Recent Graduate Discount
If you have graduated from the University within the last three academic years, you may be eligible for a 15% discount on postgraduate-taught tuition fees.
Most students intend to pursue a career in research or clinical psychology. Thus, many graduates go on to research assistantships or PhD places. Others have obtained positions in government, healthcare, or business.
The MSc focuses on psychology as a science rather than as a clinical service, but many graduates pursue careers by obtaining research assistantships at teaching hospitals or other mental health centres or by taking a second Master's degree specialising in mental health.
The Careers Centre offers one-to-one advice to all students as well as a programme of events to assist students in building their employability skills.