A European Framework for Psychologists' Training

FORMAL QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS - UNITED KINGDOM

The title. There is no protection for the title 'psychologist' so that in theory anyone may work as a psychologist. In practice, however, since most of the work of professional psychologists is in the public sector, there is increasingly the requirement for Chartered Psychologist qualification and status. The title of Chartered Psychologist is given by the British Psychological Society (BPS) which administers a Register of Chartered Psychologists and is protected by law.

The law. There is no legal protection of the title psychologist, though the BPS is working hard for a Psychologists' Law which will make it illegal to practice as a psychologist without full qualifications (Chartered Psychologist status)

Further specialist education and training. In the UK training in Psychology is a two stage process. Students first do a three (or in some cases four) year undergraduate degree, which leads to a Bachelor's degree (usually BA or BSc, but other qualifications such as BEcon also exist). An undergraduate course that is recognised by the BPS is said to confer Graduate Basis for Registration. This means that the student can proceed to professional training (subject to availability of places, and competition in many areas is fierce). The first degree is followed by three or more years of postgraduate training. There are separate routes of training for clinical, educational, organisational and other specialist fields. For clinical psychologists the standard pattern consists of three years under the supervision of a university in which both academic and professional training (including clinical placements) are covered; the normal qualification which results is a DClinPsy (though other qualifications still exist). If the training in any of these areas is recognised and approved by the BPS, then the student becomes a fully qualified psychologist and gains the title of Chartered Psychologist. It has not yet been accepted in law that all psychologists must be Chartered psychologists in order to practise, though increasingly many employers are accepting this as the standard. Some types of Chartered Psychologist may use specialist adjectival titles, for example Chartered Clinical Psychologist, Chartered Educational Psychologist. The UK system of basic education is already highly specialised. At both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, Psychology degrees are validated by the British Psychological Society. This means that the curriculum is to some extent dictated by the BPS. In addition, all university programmes are subject to audit and evaluation by the internal mechanisms of each university and by national bodies such as the Quality Assurance Agency (which has a programme of periodic visits to psychology departments). All Chartered Psychologists are expected to keep themselves up to date through continuous professional development.

Research. The main research qualification is the PhD. This is awarded by individual universities for original research. Funding is through the national research councils or university bursaries. The PhD degree normally takes at least 3 years full-time. Increasingly students are taking Master's or Diploma qualifications in research, either as a step towards a PhD or as qualifications in their own right.

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