Back

Overview

This programme offers training for mental health professionals who wish to use Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in their practice.

CBT approaches and interventions are recognised as a major contributor to psychological treatment. Our course is suitable for a wide range of professionals such as:

  • Nurses
  • Social Workers
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Physiotherapists
  • Doctors
  • Psychologists

You will explore good psychotherapeutic practice and focus on specific CBT concepts and skills including learning about the roles of safety and avoidance behaviours. You will also focus on using CBT with anxiety and depression and explore ending therapy and relapse prevention strategies.

You will be introduced to diagnostic specific models for PTSD, social phobia, OCD, eating disorders and health anxiety and develop your skills in order to diagnose and treat these disorders.

You will also look at the difficulties and complexities encountered in working with more severe and complex conditions and develop your confidence as a CBT practitioner. As well as this you’ll develop a firm foundation of the role of scientist-practitioner, instilling principles of healthy and ethical practice.

NB: You are required to secure a placement for the duration of our course and may need to arrange for individual clinical supervision with a BABCP accredited supervisor.

Course Highlights

  • The Postgraduate Diploma is a Level 2 accredited course with the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP).
  • Career prospects are excellent in CBT therapy with a current high demand for these unique skills.
  • Throughout your studies you will attend a number of skills workshops in order to improve on your knowledge, attitudes and clinical competencies to allow you to become a competent and safe practitioner.

CAREER PROSPECTS

Our aim is to provide an enjoyable and intellectually stimulating course of study that will equip you with the capacity and capability to provide high quality CBT either within your existing role or to use these skills to further your career.

Entry Requirements

What qualifications do you need?

We welcome Scottish, UK and international students and consider all applicants on an individual basis.

Don’t worry if your qualifications are not listed here, we take a range of factors into account when assessing your application and are happy to consider other alternative combinations of qualifications and experience

If you are applying with an EU or non-EU qualification, please check our Postgraduate & Post-experience Entry Requirements page which gives more information about country-specific entry requirements.

You will require an Ordinary bachelor’s degree from a UK university in a relevant subject (or equivalent overseas degree). If you do not possess a degree, you may still be considered if you possess professional qualification and extensive, relevant experience.

You will also normally be registered with a professional body, and have acquired two years post-qualification experience working with people experiencing mental health issues.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS FOR MOST COURSES

For applicants whose first language is not English, the University sets a minimum English Language proficiency level. The qualifications below must have been gained within two years of the start of your course.

General English language requirements at UWS: International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Academic module (not General Training)

  • overall score 6.0
  • no sub-test less than 5.5

Exceptions to this level of IELTS scoring exist for some accredited or professionally-recognised courses (see section below for more details).

SOCIAL WORK DEGREES

For our BA (Hons) Social Work and MSc Social Work programmes, applicants are required to have an IELTS score as follows:

  • overall score of 7.0
  • no sub-test less than 7.0

COMMON EQUIVALENT ENGLISH LANGUAGE QUALIFICATIONS

All stated English tests are acceptable for admission for both home/EU and international students for this programme:

  • CAE (Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English): 176 overall; no sub-test less than 169
  • CPE (Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English): 176 overall; no sub-test less than 169
  • Trinity College London Integrated Skills in English: ISEII with the minimum of a Pass in all sub-tests
  • PTE Pearson Academic English: An overall score of 59 to 64 with no element below 59 (for programmes that require IELTS 6.0 with no element below 5.5). An overall score 65 to 75 with no element below 65 (for programmes that require IELTS 6.5 with no element below 6.0)

 

IELTS SCORE EXCEPTIONS (RESEARCH DEGREES, BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE DEGREES, NURSING & MIDWIFERY DEGREES WITH NMC REGISTRATION, CERTIFICATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, ETC.)

RESEARCH DEGREES

For our research degrees (MRes, MPhil, PhD, DBA, DProf) applicants are required to have an IELTS score as follows:

  • overall score of 6.5
  • no sub-test less than 6.0

HEALTH & MIDWIFERY AWARDS

For Health, Nursing & Midwifery courses that lead to, or require professional registration with the Nursing & Midwifery Council, applicants are required to have an IELTS or Occupational English Test (OET)*.

For such courses, the IELTS score is as follows:

  • overall score of 7.0
  • score of at least 7.0 in reading, listening and speaking and no less than 6.5 in writing

* Note that the Occupational English Test (OET) will now be accepted in addition to IELTS as proof of a Nurse's English Language Competence (Nursing & Midwifery Council, 2019).

BIOMEDICAL DEGREES

For our BSc (Hons) Applied Biomedical Science, BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science and MSc Advanced Biomedical Science programmes, applicants are required to have an IELTS score as follows:

  • overall score of 7.0
  • no sub-test less than 6.5

CERTIFICATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

For our Certificate of Higher Education courses, applicants are required to have an IELTS score as follows:

  • overall score of 5.0
  • no sub-test less than 4.5

 

TOEFL IBT

TOEFL IBT*: 78; no sub-test less than:

  • Reading: 17;
  • Listening: 17;
  • Speaking: 17;
  • Writing: 17

* Please note that TOEFL is still acceptable for admission to this programme for both home/EU and international students.
For international students, the Home Office has confirmed that the University can choose to use TOEFL to make its own assessment of English language ability for visa applications to degree level courses. We therefore still accept TOEFL tests taken in the last two years for admission to this programme.

 

WEST AFRICAN SENIOR SCHOOL CERTIFICATE OF EDUCATION (WASSCE)

West African Senior School Certificate of Education (WASSCE) including acceptance of WAEC Scratchcard*

  • C6 or above in English

*UWS will accept a WAEC scratchcard confirming that an applicant has achieved C6 or above as evidence of meeting English language requirement from Nigeria if the student graduated within the last 5 years. After 5 years applicants would be required to provide the WAEC Certificate.

 

PRE-SESSIONAL COURSES

Applicants who do not meet the minimum English language requirements have the option to study one of our preparatory and pre-sessional English courses. The UWS courses available are:

    • 10 week pre-sessional - entry criteria UKVI IELTS 5.0 with no element below 4.5.
    • 5 week pre-sessional - entry criteria UKVI IELTS 5.5 with no element below 5.5.
    • English Language for University Study - entry criteria UKVI IELTS with score of 4.0 in all elements (10 month course), or 4.5 with no score below 4.0 (7 month course).

Find out more about our English language Courses.

Additional Costs & Sources of Funding

The cost of attending university is an investment in your future career.

In addition to tuition fees and living expenses, some courses involve extra costs like study materials, field trips, equipment and uniforms.

Fortunately, there is a great deal of financial support available to help students meet the cost of their study. This ranges from:

  • statutory government loans to pay for tuition fees
  • scholarships for Scottish, EU and International (non-EU) students
  • bursaries to help towards living expenses

The sections below provide details of additional costs that your course may involve along with any financial support that may be available.

You can also find additional information in our Postgraduate Money, Fees & Funding section.

Students on certain degrees will incur some additional costs not covered by their tuition fees. These could be for things like specialist equipment, study materials, work placements, graduation, membership of relevant organisations or costs related to carrying out fieldwork.

For students on course with an element of fieldwork, there may also be extra costs for travel and accommodation.

Please contact the course leader for details of the additional costs associated with this course.

CBT - ADDITIONAL COSTS

If you are not able to secure a BABCP accredited therapist to supervise your work via your employment must secure this privately. This may involve paying privately for this. For more information, contact the Course Leader.

Tuition Fees & Additional Costs

Tuition fees are calculated based on where you are from and what you are studying. Some courses also involve additional costs, such as mandatory field trips, equipment or studying abroad.

Find out how much it will cost you to study at UWS as a postgraduate student.

Funding for Scottish Students

Scottish students studying at postgraduate level at UWS are entitled to various funds and support towards tuition fees and living costs.

Find out more.

Funding for English, Welsh & Norther Irish Students

English, Welsh and Northern Irish students studying at postgraduate level at UWS are entitled to various funds and support towards tuition fees and living costs.

Find out more.

Funding for EU Students

EU students studying at postgraduate level of UWS may be eligible for SAAS funding, as well as support to meet the costs of childcare and various sources of additional funding.

Find our more.

Funding for International Students

There are several scholarship and incentive schemes available to international students studying at postgraduate level at UWS, as well as support to meet the costs of childcare and various sources of additional funding.

Find out more.

Discretionary & Childcare Funds

UWS administer a range of discretionary and childcare funds. These are designed to support students who are experiencing financial difficulty or struggling to meet the costs of childcare.

Find out more.

Benefits & Tax Credits

Becoming a student can have an impact on your entitlement to certain benefits. It may mean you are no longer eligible to claim a benefit you have been receiving, or your new income from student funding may affect the amount you are able to receive.

Find out more.

Additional Financial Support

If there isn’t a statutory source of funding for you or your course, or you are in need of additional financial support, you may wish to consider more alternative sources of funding such as trust funds and scholarships.

Find out more.

Money & Debt Advice

Choosing to become a student can have a big impact on your budget and you may need to reassess your spending to account for a reduced income. We’ve put together some guidance to help you manage your money and make the right financial choices for you and your family.

Find out more.

How to apply

Postgraduate courses (MA, MSc, MEd, MBA, DBA, PG Cert, PG Dip, etc.) & some Post-experience courses (CertHE, BA, Grad Cert, Grad Dip, etc.)

All students should apply directly to the University through our online application system. Before you apply, you should check that you meet our entry requirements and you should have all your supporting documents ready.

The first stage of the process is to complete the initial application form. You will then receive a follow-up email with further instructions relating to your application including documents that you will need to forward to support your application, e.g. degree transcripts and certificates etc.

Most courses don't have a formal closing date, but they will close when they are full; apply early to avoid disappointment. There may also be funding deadlines that apply to you.

The Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) applies to all international students and researchers (apart from exempt nationalities) who are subject to UK immigration control and are intending to study or research at postgraduate level in certain sensitive subjects.

Students and researchers who are nationals of EU countries, the European Economic Area (EEA), Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland or the United States of America do not need an ATAS certificate.

An ATAS certificate may be required for certain taught postgraduate master's degrees for international students at UWS.

For the latest information on ATAS and details of eligibility and how to apply for a certificate check the UK Government's dedicated ATAS web pages.

Get in touch

Do you have a question about applying for this course? Get in touch. We are here to help!

Ranked in the top 3% of universities worldwide (THE 2018) | UWS | University of the West of Scotland

Tuition Fees 2023-24

Use the Link below to download details of our full-time, part-time tuition fees for Bachelor, Masters, Research, and English Language pre-sessional courses for session 2023-24.

Tuition Fees
UWS Research Students | Researcher Development & Concordat | University of the West of Scotland

Research at UWS

With cutting edge facilities, specialist knowledge and world-leading and internationally excellent expertise, we aim to develop research outputs that have a tangible, early and positive impact on society across the globe.

Discover

We will always try to make sure that we publish accurate course information but we do not accept responsibility for any mistakes or omissions. We will also try to make sure that we deliver our courses in line with our published information. However, we may not always be able to do so and you can find further information about this in our enrolment terms and conditions.