Program Overview

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If you want to understand our place in the world, then psychology at Essex is for you. We provide one of the most immersive and exciting experiences of studying the human mind in the UK. We focus on the big questions so that you embark on a journey into the thoughts, feelings, and actions of individuals. Satisfy your curiosity by learning from innovative researchers at the cutting edge of psychological science. At Essex we take a multi-method approach, working beyond traditional boundaries to combine different expertise and share fascinating techniques and intriguing theories. We answer questions such as:

• Why are social relationships so important – how do we make and break them, and what can we do to improve our relationships?
• How do parenting choices in the earliest weeks of a baby’s life impact them for years to come?
• How does our cultural background affect thinking, motivations, personality, interpersonal behaviours and group processes?

In your first year you will study six brand new modules that address major challenges that society faces today. You will learn psychology from the start, and we will give you the skillset you need to be successful. We embed key skills such as research methods and statistics into topics you’ll be interested in. You’ll be taught topics one-by-one in blocks which allows you to consolidate your knowledge. You will continue to develop these skills during your second year. In your third year you will specialise in areas that really interest you. This will allow you to excel at studying psychology. You learn from our researchers and can work together in the same space via our Research Experience Scheme (RES) which gives you the opportunity to work one-on-one with a psychologist as their research assistant. Our SHOUTS scheme allows you to use your skills and creativity to make our department a better place and promote what we do beyond Essex, through social media, activities and events.

Professional accreditation

Accredited against the requirements for the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) of the British Psychological Society (BPS). Why we're great.

• 90% of our Department of Psychology graduates are in employment or further study (Graduate Outcomes 2023).
• We are 21st in the UK for overall student satisfaction for psychology (National Student Survey 2022).
• Our Research Experience Scheme (RES) gives you the opportunity to work one-on-one with a psychologist as their research assistant.

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Study abroad

Your education extends beyond the university campus. We support you in expanding your education through offering the opportunity to spend a year or a term studying abroad at one of our partner universities. The four-year version of our degree allows you to spend the third year abroad or employed on a placement abroad, while otherwise remaining identical to the three-year course. Studying abroad allows you to experience other cultures and languages, to broaden your degree socially and academically, and to demonstrate to employers that you are mature, adaptable, and organised. If you spend a full year abroad you'll only pay 15% of your usual tuition fee to Essex for that year. You won't pay any tuition fees to your host university

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Placement year

You can also undertake a placement year in which you gain relevant work experience within an external business, giving you a competitive edge in the graduate job market and providing you with key contacts within the industry. You will be responsible for finding your placement, but with support and guidance provided by both your department and our placements team . If you complete a placement year you'll only pay 20% of your usual tuition fee to Essex for that year.

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Our expert staff

Our psychology lecturers include award-winning teachers and prize-winning researchers who are international experts in their own research areas. Our staff carry out research into areas of psychology that fall under our three key themes: thinking about the world , interacting with the world , and experiencing the world . These three themes help tie your knowledge together as they directly feed into our modules, where you can study how we remember things, what captures out attention, how relationships work, what our emotions do with us, or the impact of culture on ourselves and others.

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Specialist facilities

We are committed to giving you access to state-of-the-art facilities in higher education, housed entirely within our purpose-built psychology building on our Colchester Campus:

• Dedicated laboratories including a virtual reality suite and an observation suite
• Specialist areas to study visual and auditory perception, developmental psychology and social psychology
• Our Babylab is the leading infant lab in the east of England that explores perceptual, emotional, and cognitive processes in infants
• Our multimillion pound Centre for Brain Science (CBS) allows staff to investigate brain activity, and to measure eye movements and other physiological responses

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Your future

• A psychology degree, especially one accredited by the British Psychology Society, will provide you with the foundations needed for specialising in diverse areas, including clinical and educational psychology.
• Many of our psychology graduates choose careers outside traditional psychology fields. The skills you learn during your degree opens doors to careers in market research, human resources, and people-focussed careers such as a high-intensity therapist or special educational needs .
• Our psychology graduates have progressed in diverse careers across the public, private and third sectors, including working for the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, and Prison and Probation Service, mental health charity MIND, and organisations like the BBC.

Visit our psychology careers page to find out more about your career opportunities and discover the variety of career paths our recent graduates have taken. We also work with our University's careers services to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities. “After completing my psychology degree, I went onto work at HMP Brixton as a Health Trainer. I now work in the third sector for Mind as an Education Mental Health Practitioner. My job involves working with children, parents and teachers as part of a new initiative to bring Mental Health Support Teams into schools. I work with children who have mild to moderate mental health conditions, supporting them through one-to-one and targeted group support interventions. From my Essex degree, I gained lots of transferable skills that I am currently using in my job such as communication, networking, organisation and critical thinking. My plans for the future are to become a Clinical Psychologist in either an educational or forensic setting.” Abigail Bish, BSc Psychology, 2018