Our aim is to give you a thorough and comprehensive grounding in Psychology, and to enable you to embark readily on any form of specialist postgraduate training. Our courses are broadly based and cover all main areas of Psychology, with opportunities to specialise in the final year through the choice of options courses and extended essay topics. The following courses are available:

Frequently Asked Questions
After reading this page, you might also find it helpful to consult the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions from applicants for Psychology.

Undergraduate Brochure
If you wish to be sent details of all our courses, simply fill in the online Undergraduate Brochure Request Form.

Alternatively Click here to view the brochure as a 1.MB .pdf file. To download the file for later viewing, right-click the link and choose 'Save target as...'. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader, available from Adobe as a 33.5MB download, or freely available on many computer magazine discs etc.

International Students
The School of Psychology welcomes applications from international students and we make every effort to support them throughout their studies at the University of Leicester. See here for more details.

Facilities
We have good research and teaching facilities which include two large computer laboratories and a psychometric test library. For more specialised research we have a virtual reality laboratory, and a music research laboratory equipped with electronic instruments, computers with music processing software, and editing facilities.

BPS Accreditation
Our degrees are accredited for the Graduate Basis for Registration (GBR) of the British Psychological Society (the professional body for psychologists) which is also situated in Leicester and maintains close links with the School of Psychology. Students will get the Graduate Basis for Registration of the BPS on all the courses we offer provided they obtain an honours degree. However, GBR will not be available to Combined Arts students who enrol from October 2005, nor will it be possible for these students to transfer subsequently from Combined Arts to other courses in the School .

Active Research Ethos
The School of Psychology is very active in research, much of its work enjoying a national and international reputation. Much of our current research is applied in nature and includes studies of musical composition and improvisation, reading development, eyewitness testimony, criminal profiling, interviewing techniques and expert evidence in court, sex differences in children’s use of computers, and the use of virtual reality computing in the spatial development of children with locomotor disabilities. All students taking psychology for three years have an opportunity to participate in departmental research programmes during their final year.

Postgraduate courses run by the School of Psychology
We run postgraduate professional training for applied research in the clinical, legal, forensic and occupational areas, and work closely with other professional groups in industry, the NHS, the Police, Social Work, the Prison Service and in the law. Our current courses are as follows:

• Doctorate of Clinical Psychology

• MSc in Forensic Psychology

• Msc in Forensic and Legal Psychology by Distance Learning

• MSc/DIP/CERT in the Assessment and Treatment of Sex Offenders

• MSc in Occupational Psychology

• MSc/Diploma in the Psychology of Work

We also offer an MSc in Psychological Research Methods

Student Psychology Society
We have an active student Psychology Society which organises lectures and visits, and has a lively social programme. We also have a programme of talks presented by well-known psychologists from other Departments and Research Units.

Some Current Research
Some highlights of the wide range of current research activities and findings within our School include:

• On hold phone music has been found to keep people waiting longer than conventional verbal messages.

• Research in functional brain imaging has revealed the role of visual attention in visual word recognition.

• Is the overall shape of a word important in reading? Research suggests that important features identifying letters are more likely to be located on the periphery of words rather than in their central region.

• Work in supermarkets suggests that the type of background music in a supermarket can influence the type of wine that is bought.

• A typology of stalkers developed within the school is currently in use by the San Diego police department in their case management.

• A government-funded child witness program within the school is looking at children’s evidence and how it can be relayed by cctv in court.

• Current research is examining what kind of music would yield more milk in cows.

• Mathematical models of working memory have been developed.

• Research has been undertaken into the differences between males and females in the way they communicate using technology.

• The e-fit method of criminal profiling using a new “jigsaw” method has been found to be better than conventional methods.

• The experience of older motherhood is being examining in relation to the effects on the mother and her children.

• Current research is looking at improving the effectiveness of warning signs on consumer products.

• The work of a criminal profiler in our School has featured prominently in a recent Channel 4 series.