In the UK, clinical psychologists register with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). To make things a little confusing, they don’t register as a ‘clinical psychologist’, but as a ‘practitioner psychologist’. This category also includes other types of psychologists, such as forensic psychologists and health psychologists. ‘Clinical psychologist’ is then referred to as a ‘modality’ within the category.

How many overseas applicants are successful?

Overseas clinical psychologists can apply to the HCPC for registration in the UK as a ‘practitioner psychologist’ with a ‘clinical psychologist’ modality. If successful, this then opens doors for a range of UK jobs which require HCPC registration. I requested information from the HCPC about the number of overseas psychologists who have applied to the UK register in the past 3 years, and the number which have been successful, via a ‘Freedom of Information Act request’. You can download the excel file they sent me by clicking here. On the first tab, it lists the number of applicants over the past 3 years according to country and year. On the second, it shows the number of successful registrations, also by country and year. This data show that in the past 3 years, 1190 international psychologists have applied to be registered as a practitioner psychologist and 703 have been successful. This is only a 59% success rate.

The data also show that success rates vary between countries. For example, of 57 Australian applicants, 52 were successful, which is an impressive 91% success rate. However, of 30 Nigerian applicants, only 6 were successful, which is a concerning 20% success rate. For this blog post, I offer some advice for international psychologists considering a UK registration. I spoke with two prospective applicants, Olivia* from India, where success rates stand at 45% and Jane* from Greece, where there is a 41% success rate in applicants. I also contacted the HCPC for comment on the Freedom of Information Act request results. All quoted information from the HCPC in this post comes from an email I received from them.

What to know before you apply

1. The HCPC will most likely expect you to hold a PhD or other doctorate level qualification in psychology. In the UK, the required clinical psychology training pathway involves the completion of a doctorate. While the HCPC does not explicitly require a doctorate, applicants will need to be able to demonstrate that their previous education and training is equivalent to this. In their email to me, the HCPC said, ‘In the UK application route, where we approve the educational course, many are trained at PhD level, or another post graduate level… Many (most) international Practitioner Psychologist applicants applying for registration have BSc, MSc, Ph.D plus numerous other courses that they quote in their applications.’ Olivia was not aware of this when she began completing her application, stating ‘I looked at the website and they really offered no information. I gave them a call and explained I had a masters, not a PhD. I asked if it was an issue and they said it was fine, it shouldn’t be an issue’. It is possible that this lack of clarity is linked with the variation between practitioner psychology courses in the UK. For example, UK forensic psychologists are not required to have a doctorate, and so this is less likely to be an expectation for overseas psychologists looking to register in that psychology discipline. However, the difference in success rates between Australia (where clinical psychology is also a doctorate model) and other countries where it is not, leads me to conclude that all overseas clinical psychologists should be aware that this might be an expectation for them when looking to register in the UK.

2. The time investment to apply is significant. The application is long and completing it is time consuming. It’s important to weigh up what this will cost you personally compared with both your chances of success, and what the registration could gain for you. ‘I realised I would need to fill out this huge form with all my previous modules listed and described. A transcript wasn’t going to be good enough, they also said it needed to be a stamped or sealed document!’ Jane said. Olivia also had this experience, explaining ‘I had to go back to my educational institution from 10 years ago in India. They wanted all the information from my undergraduate syllabus. I invested literally days in trying to sort this out’.
3. The fee is non-refundable. In 2023, the application fee for international applicants was £539.65, which is non-refundable. Olivia explained how she saved for this, but then found out she would also need to pay for an English language test. ‘This was going to be about another £200’ she said. ‘I did one two years ago and then followed this with a UK masters degree, but that wasn’t good enough. They wanted me to do it again’. The extra fee was more than Olivia had prepared for and caused her to pause her application. When I asked the HCPC about the fee being non-refundable, they said: “This is so existing registrants do not subsidise applicants. The application fee reflects the costs of assessing the application, which includes a review by two assessors in the same profession”.

4. You will receive feedback if you are unsuccessful. In their email to me, the HCPC said: ‘Any apparent shortfalls in the equivalence to a newly qualified UK applicant that registers will be listed in the response to the international applicant, but a particular course will not be recommended to make up the shortfall. It is up to the applicant to find the appropriate additional training or experience’. This could mean that an initially unsuccessful application could pass when resubmitted if further training or experience is gained. However, the training and experience required in their feedback may be unfeasible for you and it is also possible that it might therefore not be practically useful information.
5. There are other options for prospective psychotherapists in the UK. It is worth developing a broad understanding of the landscape of psychological therapies in the UK. For example, while ‘clinical psychologist’ is a protected title which can only be used if you are HCPC registered, ‘psychologist’ and ‘psychotherapist’ are not protected, and there are other routes to professional recognition in psychological therapies. You may find my previous blog post on alternative routes to training as a psychological therapist helpful. For example, it is possible to train and work as a counsellor through training courses and diplomas which are not degree-level and can be completed part-time. These options may be more accessible when a doctorate-level education is not possible.

6. Learn about GBC: Graduate Basis for Chartership with the British Psychological Society. The UK clinical psychology training pathway begins with completing an undergraduate psychology degree which offers ‘GBC’. This form of professional recognition is required by a range of psychology-related jobs, including some assistant psychologist posts, psychological wellbeing practitioner roles and others. If you already have an undergraduate degree which did not provide you with GBC (few outside the UK do), you can also gain GBC through some psychology masters courses, which are known as ‘conversion courses’. For more information on these, see my previous blog post. If registering with the HCPC seems unfeasible for you, gaining GBC through a masters conversion course could help make you eligible for a number of other roles which could then help you progress your psychology career in the UK.

Final thoughts

A final word

The job of the HCPC is to ensure high standards are upheld in the UK. Ensuring this may mean that some applicants are rejected if they do not have the relevant qualifications or experience. However, the figures revealed by the Freedom of Information Act request suggest that work could be done to communicate what is required more clearly to overseas clinical psychologists. If greater clarity was offered, more applicants would be able to self-assess their likelihood of success and make an informed choice regarding whether they should apply. This could save them time, money and emotional energy, which are all important commodities in the current climate. It might also be more effective to include an active evaluation of ability, such as an academic and/or practical exam as part of the process. At present registration can be regarded largely as a feat of form-filling; assessing ability in other ways might reduce this pressure while simultaneously increasing confidence that the assessment processes measures relevant skills.

Please note that unfortunately I am not able to respond to individual requests for career advice.

*not her real name

If psychology was an industry, it would be booming. In the UK in 2021, 140,000 undergraduates were studying psychology, equivalent to 5% of all UK university students. It’s a growing area for jobs, too. Between 2018 and 2022, the number of places on the government-funded Clinical Psychology Doctorate doubled, and a range of new psychology professions have been created and supported by government funding. Alongside this, there have been an increasing number and range of psychology masters courses. A quick search on findamasters.com suggests they are currently advertising 1183 masters degrees in psychology in the UK alone. These focus on a range of areas such as health psychology, organisational psychology and forensic psychology. It’s a bewildering array of options for undergraduates to get their heads around.

I want to be a Clinical Psychologist, which masters should I do?

As a government-funded course, and the only way to qualify as a UK Clinical Psychologist, the clinical psychology doctorate is competitive. A number of students now look to complete a masters after their undergraduate degree to enhance their CV and improve their chances of success. I am often asked which masters course is best, but I always struggle to find an answer. Of course, the answer is that the best masters course is the one which clinical psychology doctorate courses rate the most highly; but no such masters course exists. Some clinical psychology doctorates operate a point-scoring system which will award a point for a masters degree, and possibly more points for higher grades on a masters degree. Others operate less clear selection systems, which may recognise the value of a masters but not necessarily award it a point. I am not aware of any system which formally rates specific types of psychology masters degrees more highly than others. Instead, it could be worth considering the following issues to identify which masters might be more suitable for you.

1. Which skills do you want to learn?

As specialist courses, masters degrees aim to equip their students with specific skills which can be useful later. For example, at the University of Leeds, our psychology masters courses train students in how to conduct systematic reviews. For students considering a career in research or looking to prepare themselves for the academic elements of the clinical psychology doctorate, this is a valuable skill. At the University of Sheffield, the Psychological Research Methods masters course features training in questionnaire design, an important skill for anyone considering career options in research or management consultancy.

2. Are you looking for clinical experience?

Graduates can sometimes find themselves stuck in the vicious cycle of ‘experience’: jobs want you to have it prior to employment, but how can you get it if you can’t get a job? To help students work round this, some undergraduate courses now offer industrial placement years, which can provide a year of clinical experience. However, if your undergraduate course didn’t offer that, you can now also find a masters which offers the same benefit. Universities currently offering this include the University of Reading and Bournemouth University.

3. Check out who’s who

The masters research project represents a significant opportunity for gaining important experience and skills. For example, if your chosen course doesn’t offer a placement, but there are active clinicians offering clinically-focused research projects, you can gain important clinical experience through doing your project with them. Psychology departments will often specialise in certain areas. For example, at the University of Leeds where I am based, there is a strong emphasis on health psychology. Other departments may specialise in forensic, clinical or developmental psychology and employ several academics offering projects on those topics. It’s worth checking out who exactly the academics are in the department you are considering, and whether you would be able to do your research project with them.

4. Institutional reputation

Most clinical course selection processes will not make a distinction between a masters from a more academically respected, research-intensive university and one from a lower-ranking university. However, this distinction could be important when considering your own specific interests. That is – will the academics working on your chosen masters course be able to supervise you to complete a research project which is potentially publishable? This could be important if you are considering continuing with a research career, or gaining a published paper to further strengthen your clinical psychology doctorate application. Alternatively, are you considering walking away from psychology to pursue a corporate career? Again, in this case, you might find that a masters from a higher ranking university helps give your CV the edge it needs.

5. Accreditation with the British Psychological Society

If you have completed your undergraduate psychology degree at a British university, you will most likely have a degree which is recognised and accredited with the British Psychological Society. This is important, because you need it to apply for the clinical psychology doctorate, and for many roles and training courses which are linked with psychology. If you did your undergraduate degree elsewhere, or in another subject, you may want to do a masters ‘conversion’ course, which is accredited with the British Psychological Society. See my previous blog for more on this.

6. Need flexibility?

Alongside the growth in psychology masters courses has been an increasing availability of online courses. At the time of writing, there are 206 UK online only psychology masters being advertised on findamasters.com. These courses can have drawbacks. Not being on campus can limit the social experience of university and lead to feelings of isolation. However, if you’re a part-time learner, or unable to move to study, distance learning may be the flexible option you need to progress your career.

7. Study the handbook

While the huge array of options can be bewildering, it’s important not to jump to any decisions. Masters courses are often expensive, academically intensive and will take one to two years of your life to complete. Before finalising any decisions, be sure to study the handbook and the module options, to be confident that what you’ll be studying is right for you. If the modules sound dull, or the assessment approaches don’t appeal, pause. There is likely another course available elsewhere that will suit you better.

2023 is a great time to be planning a career as a psychological professional! I first published my ten top tips for aspiring Clinical Psychologists in 2019, but the landscape has vastly improved since then. In fact, it is twice as good. In 2018, there were 593 places to train as a Clinical Psychologist in the UK, and 1 in 6 applicants were successful. In 2022, this number had nearly doubled to 1155 places. That year, 1 in 4 applicants were successful! While my previous top tips still stand, I wanted to add on some updates for 2023.

1. Consider training opportunities within NHS Talking Therapies (previously known as IAPT, the Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies Initiative). NHS Talking Therapies employs two core roles, Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs) and the High Intensity Therapists (HITs). These professionals are paid to train and have good employment prospects after qualifying. Their work also equips them with the skills and experiences which can make them competitive for the Clinical Psychology Doctorate.

I suggested NHS Talking Therapies in my previous top tips blog, but I think it is an even better prospect in 2023. This is because the range of opportunities within NHS Talking Therapies has expanded. They are now piloting the funded training and employment of counsellors, and planning to train existing PWPs and HITs in more evidence-based interventions. These include treatments for people with long covid and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) Therapy for PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). I always encourage aspiring psychologists to continuously expand their skillset, and in 2023, NHS Talking Therapies looks like a great context in which to do this.

2. Consider training as a psychological practitioner. For a long time, the Assistant Psychologist role was pretty much the only job which sat in the gap between undergraduate psychology degrees and the Clinical Psychology Doctorate course. This first changed with the introduction of the NHS Talking Therapies and the PWP and HIT roles. However, this whole landscape has now changed for the better. In 2019, Health Education England laid out plans to expand the psychological professions workforce by 60% by 2024. An important part of this was the creation of several psychological practitioner roles. These are roles for graduates which pay them to train and provide them with a qualification.

Five of these roles train candidates on a Band 4 and offer qualified roles at a Band 5. One of these roles, the Clinical Associate Psychologist (CAP), trains candidates on a Band 5 and offers qualified roles at a Band 6. The CAP role is specifically for psychology graduates and sits between the Assistant Psychologist role and the Clinical Psychology Doctorate. I provide some info about each of these roles below in bullet points and you can also use the Psychological Professions Network map to find out more. Keep an eye on NHS jobs for opportunities to train in all these roles.

• Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner. Involves care planning and delivering psychologically informed interventions to people with severe mental health problems. Open to all graduates, provides training on a Band 4 and qualified roles at Band 5.
• Associate Psychological Practitioners. Delivers psychologically informed interventions in adult community teams and primary care. Open to psychology graduates only, provides training on a Band 4 and qualified roles at Band 5.
• Graduate Mental Health Practitioners. Provides care co-ordination and brief psychologically informed interventions. Open to all graduates, provides training on a Band 4 and qualified roles at Band 5.
• Education Mental Health Practitioners. Provides psychologically informed interventions in schools and college and helps support whole school approaches to mental wellbeing. Open to all graduates, provides training on a Band 4 and qualified roles at Band 5.
• Children’s Wellbeing Practitioner. Provides psychologically informed interventions in mental health services for children and young people. Open to all graduates, provides training on a Band 4 and qualified roles at Band 5.
• Clinical Associate in Psychology. Delivers formulations, psychologically informed interventions and service-based research. Open to psychology graduates only, provides training on a Band 5 and qualified roles at Band 6.

3. Know about the new rules on funding. Training opportunities for aspiring psychologists have proliferated, but rules around funding have tightened. Since April 2022, anyone taking one of these opportunities will be unable to take further funded training opportunities until two years after they have graduated from their previous opportunity. What this means is that if you train and qualify as a psychological practitioner in either NHS Talking Therapies or any other role, you will need to work in that role (or elsewhere!) for 2 years before you can start the Clinical Psychology Doctorate. In practice, you will only need to work for about a year before you can apply to the doctorate, since the application process lasts a year in itself! However, it’s important for any aspiring psychologist to factor this into their career planning.

4. Do the maths on self-funding. At this point, you may be wondering about whether you can self-fund your training. As I write, there are seven Clinical Psychology Doctorate courses which provide self-funded places for international students, and only one which offers self-funded places to UK students. These places are expensive, coming in at £20k+ per year in fees, with placement fees and travel expenses on top. An alternative self-funded option is the ForenClinPsyD at the University of Birmingham, a four-year Doctorate Course which qualifies graduates to register as both Forensic and Clinical Psychologists. The fees are currently £14.5k per year for UK students and £24k per year for international students.

It is also important to note that all Counselling Psychology Doctorate places are self-funded, and Counselling Psychology opens up similar opportunities in adult mental health to Clinical Psychology. The fees for some of these courses are slightly lower. For example, the University of Manchester currently charges UK students £8.5k per year and international students £20k per year. With all these courses, I would strongly encourage applicants to consider the cost in real terms. It may be hard to maintain any kind of part-time job alongside a full-time doctorate. How much debt will be accrued to fund this training, and what is your likely income in the years after qualifying? How much of this income will you be able to set aside to pay off loans? It is important that the numbers add up.

It also now possible to self-fund CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) training, which is shorter, at one year. At Surrey, the fees are currently £10k for the whole course. This also qualifies candidates to work in the NHS at a Band 7, the same as qualifying psychology doctorate professionals, and may be a good option for self-funders.

5. Beware the issue of accreditation. Many mental health roles now require registration with a professional organisation. For example, High Intensity Therapists (HITs) need to be registered as CBT therapists with the BABCP. Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs) also need to be registered with the BABCP. All Practitioner Psychologists (Clinical, Forensic, Counselling, Health) need to be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and Counsellors need to be registered with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). If you are self-funding training in any of these professions, check that your course is accredited by the relevant body and will enable you to register with them afterwards. Many of the new psychology practitioner roles are not yet accredited and do not need to be registered, but this issue may arise over time as roles become more established. Before you launch into any training, be sure to check whether the role you are expecting to work in requires registration and if it does, make sure your course is accredited.

This update is not all-inclusive and is designed to be an add-on to my previous top tips blog. There is much good news for aspiring psychologists in 2023: there are now more jobs and more opportunities! Navigating this landscape can be bewildering, but I hope these tips help you on your next steps. Life is a journey, and life in psychology can be exciting. Enjoy your adventure!

Please note, I cannot provide individualised career advice.