Uk Ok?

[Psyclops]

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So what do people know about UK psychology? I know Europe has a few (at least) very respectable journals. I would imagine that the English system would share certain similarities to our system, but I'd be interested to lear. Also are there externship opportunities there?

 

[joetro]

My sense is that's it is a little more biological than America; for example, there are lots of people doing studies on rat brains and animal work, whereas America tends to focus a little more on humans. As for clinical psychology in particular, Ph.D.'s are so compressed (3 years) that it's probably not advisable to do a Ph.D. there if you want to practice/work in America.

 

[soaringheights]

I heard that the Institute of Psychiatry at London is good. I think their M.S. is for a year, instead of two. For neurosychology specifically, the Univ college of London, Kent, Essex, Oxford, York are supposed to be good. And the PhD is for 3 years, as was mentioned in the earlier post. Plus, its pretty difficult to get a work visa in U.K. so paying off the loans would be difficult.

 

[mayab]

I think it would be difficult to train in the UK as a foreigner because psychologists are trained through the national health service and it is very competitive to get spots.

But psychologists are in demand, so if you get trained at home it would be relatively easy to get qualify under their highly skilled migrant programme.

The job opportunities also look really good. Psychology seems to be more integrated into the health system over there.

 

[Psyclops]

Hey PsiSci, would you feel inclined to share a little about the UK system with us?

 

[50960]

I will chime in when I have some time. However it has been 11 yrs since I lived in the UK and things may well be very different now. Then, psychology was heavily research based...clinical work was done by psychiatrists. In the UK psychoanalysis is alive and well, and practiced mainly by psychiatrists. "Doctors" in the UK only have a bachelors degree, so any MS, MA, PhD programs were considered advanced training for any professional. Masters level research training in the UK is far more advanced than alot of PhD programs here. School is cheap, but you are expected to go 5 days/week, all day, and cannot work more than minimal hours while doing so. I attended the Institute of Education, University of London.

cheers

 

[Psyclops]

Doctors only have a bachelors degree? All doctors or just psychology doctors. Did you get your PsyD over there?

 

[50960]

Physicians only have a BS degree. There are no PsyD's in the UK only PhD's.

 

[Psyclops]

So they don't bother with all the extraneous learning, like liberal arts etc. They just go straight into Med school? Can someone be a psychologist with a Bachelors there? And if so is equivilent to here? More or less?

 

[Nelle]

Hey. I'm new to this board, but I hope I can help to clarify a little about the UK system as I lived there for several years while studying and working in psychology.

With the exception of clinical psychology, graduate studies involve one year masters degree and/or three years PhD. Students in these areas usually go straight from undergraduate to graduate studies. It is possible to do a PhD with a focus on an area in clinical psychology, but people with a PhD cannot practice clinically in the UK because they only provide training in research (yet one clinical traning program has renamed their degree PhD).

Those who want to practice as clinical psychologists have to complete a three year ClinPsyD, DClinPsy, DClinPsychol etc accredited by the British Psychological Society - BPS (Take a look at the Clinical Psychology Clearing House website [http://www.leeds.ac.uk/chpccp/] for information about UK). The programs value work experience, particularly clinical experience, although research experience is not frowned upon if it has involved a lot of patient contact. Most successful applicants have spent years working as assistant psychologists in the National Health Service (or the NHS). The reason for this focus on clinical work experience rather than research experience is that the NHS funds all the available traning spots in the programs and graduates are expected to commit to working for the NHS rather than in private practice.

A recent alternative route to enter clinical practice in the UK is via health psychology. This route involves doing a one year masters degree accredited by the BPS (called Stage 1 training) followed by a two year professional doctorate in health psychology accredited by the BPS (called Stage 2). Check out the BPS division of health psychology for more information: http://www.health-psychology.org.uk/menuItems/training.php

As for medical doctors, they do a five year bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery (MBChB), which is equivalent to an MD. A few years ago, some universities decided to start four years MBChB for students who already have a bachelors degree in biology, chemistry, psychology etc.

Hope this helps! 🙂

 

[Nelle]

And another interesting fact about medical doctors I forgot to add - those who specialize in surgery forfeit their title as doctor when qualified - they are referred to as Mr (and I would assume Mrs or Ms if a woman - I never knew any female surgeons). Weird, isn't it? 😉 Perhaps they have to do a PhD if they want to be called doctor again...

 

[Scottish Chap]

Physicians only have a BS degree. There are no PsyD's in the UK only PhD's.

The U.K. medical degree (from high school) is a five-year MBBS, MBChB, MBChir, or BMBS...all latin for bachelor of medicine/bachelor of surgery. It's rare to find a physician trained in the U.K. with a B.S. degree.

 

[Scottish Chap]

And another interesting fact about medical doctors I forgot to add - those who specialize in surgery forfeit their title as doctor when qualified - they are referred to as Mr (and I would assume Mrs or Ms if a woman - I never knew any female surgeons). Weird, isn't it? 😉 Perhaps they have to do a PhD if they want to be called doctor again...

It follows on from the tradition when surgery was not part of medicine...in fact, many barbers performed surgery (barbers and barber surgeons). Now, surgery in the U.K. falls under the umbrella of medical training (thankfully), but the newly-minted doctor forfeits that title in favor of tradition, and becomes Mr. or Ms. In the U.K. dentists and vets are not valled "doctor" either...unless they have a Ph.D. Chiropractic, optometry, pharmacy, and physical therapy are 4-year undergraduate degrees and those professionals are not called "doctor" either.

 

[Javron]

Apologies if this is slightly off topic but it seems like there's a number of people on this thread who know their stuff. I'm Scottish and currently have the luxury of having a choice of places on both a clinical psychology PhD program in the US and a D.Clin.Psych program in the UK. I'm extremely tempted by the UK program as it's only 3 years in duration and offers a wide range of practical experience and research work. My wife is American, however, and I don't want to rule out the possibility that we will move to the US. I have spoken to the New York state licensing board who have told me that licensing in the US would involve a professional panel reviewing my qualifications. If my doctorate is seen as equivalent to a US PsyD or PhD then I can sit the state licensing exams and hopefully become accredited. My question is, does anyone know any British psychologists who have been through this before? Is there any certainty that the UK qualification will be seen as equivalent? What would be the reception of a UK qualified psychologist applying for jobs in the US?
Any information that could shed some light on these issues would be greatly appreciated.