About the Department

Head: Dr Ian Robertson profile...

The Department of Psychology was established in 1993 and its inaugural degree programme, BA Psychology, was accredited by the British Psychological Society in 1995.

Since then the curriculum has expanded to cover Health Psychology, Applied Psychology and Psychology and Criminology – all now BSc degrees.

These Undergraduate Psychology programmes at the University are accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and confer the Graduate Basis for Recognition GBR).

The quality of our provision was rated as ‘excellent’ in a recent quality assurance audit and we received three commendations from the BPS when the programmes were accredited in 2002.

The MSc Health Psychology received three commendations from the BPS, in 2006, for the quality of our provision and student satisfaction.

In addition we offer an innovative MSc Psychological Approaches in Health and Management providing a range of skills for students with little or no psychology in their undergraduate degree, but who have an interest in the role of psychology in areas such as health promotion, management and psychological assessment.

The endorsements we have received for our programmes from external quality assurance agencies coupled with consistent high praise from external examiners over many years allow us to be confident about the high quality of the teaching, learning and student experience in psychology.

Our specialist facilities have recently been substantially upgraded to provide first-class psychology laboratories and computing environments for all our students. They include a Health and Biological Psychology lab, a Cognitive lab, a Human Interaction lab and a qualitative data analysis lab. There is also a video and multimedia editing suite as well as a number of research cubicles.

The ethos of the division is to ensure that psychology is not taught purely as a theoretical subject, but rather the emphasis is on how it applies to real life situations.

These might include dealing with eating disorders, how to teach mathematics to children, problems with eye-witness testimony, the origins of prejudice and stereotypes, how to study and much much more.

We are committed to underpinning undergraduate and postgraduate teaching with research conducted by our own academic staff.

We have an international staff body with expertise and teaching interests in all aspects of psychology, but with a particular emphasis on the new and more dynamic aspects of this exciting and rewarding subject.

All these factors combine to create a friendly, student-oriented and vibrant team supporting students pursuing high-quality accredited courses.