Applying for a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology

Self-funded trainees are those who are not salaried employees within the NHS.

As a self-funded trainee you will need to meet the same entry criteria as NHS-funded trainees and will undergo the same rigorous selection procedures to ensure that we maintain the standards of excellence for which our clinical psychology students are renowned. All teaching and placement elements of the programme are the same for both NHS and self-funded students.

International fee status applicants can apply for self-funded places on our Doctorate of Clinical Psychology. Check out the visa requirements for international applicants here.

Applications for self-funded places are made directly to theClearing House.  Please note that applications for 2022 entry are not closed, and applications for 2023 will open in the autumn of 2022.

Please note you must provide the relevant documentation and fulfil our entry criteria.

Further information about supporting documents is available on the Clearing House.

We recommend you undertake a Masters by research (not a taught Masters) or a PhD. You should aim to achieve 65% or higher in your Masters.

In the first instance, pop this information on your application form. If you feel that this is not adequate, you may contact the Course Administrator, who will arrange for your circumstances to be discussed with a member of the course team.

Unfortunately we are unable to offer APEL for this course.

Yes, we ask applicants to have at least one year’s full-time (or equivalent) work experience at the time of application. Experience can be paid or voluntary, full- or part-time (equivalent to one year’s full-time experience).

Each separate job or post making up this one year’s experience should be a minimum of 6 months full time equivalent. This is the minimum requirement and applicants with more than one year’s experience and in different clinical settings will rate higher at shortlisting.

All experience, whether paid or voluntary, working in a clinical or caring setting with service users is relevant. Experience of working with a clinical psychologist is beneficial, but we realise that this is difficult to obtain. Working in a multi-disciplinary team with, or getting supervision from, a clinical psychologist will also be considered valuable experience. We feel that it is important for you to have knowledge the role to fully understand the training that you are to undertake and have first hand experience of this if possible.

Unfortunately, we cannot offer assistance in finding work experience.

In addition to the experience you would have gained completing your undergraduate dissertation, we value any additional research experience in a field relevant to clinical psychology, particularly if it deals directly with service users. This does not have to be within a research assistant post.

Research experience counts towards the work experience entry requirements and if you can demonstrate both research and clinical experience this will be to your advantage. You can also strengthen your application by getting your research published.

It is not necessary to have worked in the UK NHS, nor in any other government-funded health care setting. You will need to demonstrate some knowledge of how the NHS works in the UK and the role of a clinical psychologist within it.

We will consider IAPT (or any other NHS-trained professionals).

For NHS-funded places, you don't need to be living in the UK at the time of applying, however you need to be eligible for home-based tuition fees (i.e. a permanent resident of the UK/EU).

For self-funded places, you may have either Home/EU or overseas fee status.

Since teaching and placements are in Essex, we encourage successful applicants to relocate to Essex to avoid long daily travel times to and from teaching and placements.

You will need to have the ability to travel within the region whilst on placement. We strongly recommend that you have a UK or international driving licence and use of a vehicle as placement locations are varied and some require you to go out into the community.

Trainees are generally at the University for teaching on Mondays and Tuesdays (although this is subject to change). In the main, teaching coincides with the University’s term structure, but it tends to extend a week or two into the summer break and there are occasions outside of this when there will be compulsory teaching sessions.

In addition, at the beginning of each academic year, there is a teaching block when trainees will be at the University full-time. Teaching blocks are scheduled for four weeks for first year trainees and two weeks for second and third year trainees.

Placements are generally within a 40 mile radius of the University. There may be occasions when placements are further away than this.

Trainees are eligible to apply for a third year specialist placement at the Tavistock Clinic. Those who apply are interviewed and will be in competition with other trainees. The programmes has three placements with the Tavistock which trainees can access if they are selected during the interview process.