Psychology

• Scottish Highers*:
  • Standard Entry Requirements - ABBB (114 UCAS Tariff points)
  • Minimum Entry Requirements – BBBB (108 UCAS Tariff points)
• A levels:
  • Standard Entry Requirements – BBC (112 UCAS Tariff points)
  • Minimum Entry Requirements - BCC (104 UCAS Tariff points)
• Irish Leaving Certificate: H1 H2 H2 H2
• International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma: 27 points
• SQA HNC / BTEC Level 4 HNC: Additional Support Needs or Applied Science or Counselling or Care & Admin Practice or Coaching & Developing Sport or Early Education & Childcare or Childhood Practice or Legal Services or Police Studies or Social Sciences or Social Studies or Social Care or Social Services or Working with Communities
• SQA HND / BTEC Level 5 HND: Legal Services
• Scottish Wider Access Programme (SWAP): Access to Humanities; Access to Humanities, Law & Business; Access to Life Science (Plus SQA Higher English); Access to Medicine; Access to Primary Education; Access to Chemical & Biological Sciences; Access to Social Sciences (BBB)

* for more information on standard and minimum entry requirements, see the  drop-down section below

• SQA Advanced Highers: BCC (128 UCAS Tariff Points)
• A-Levels: BBB (A20 UCAS Tariff Points)
• International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma: 28 points
• SQA HNC / BTEC Level 4 HNC: Social Sciences or Social Studies (for SQA HNCs with Grade B in the Graded Unit)
• SQA HND / BTEC Level 5 HND*: Social Science

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.

On our course pages, you will find details of our entry criteria listed as Standard Entry Requirements and Minimum Entry Requirements. These are the academic qualifications that, depending on your personal circumstances, you will be required to meet to allow your application to be considered for a place at UWS.

Competition for places on many of our courses can be very high and even if you meet the standard or minimum qualifications stated, there is no guarantee that your application will progress to the next stage of the admissions process. We review individual applications very closely and place great importance on your personal statement and academic reference as well as your academic qualifications before making selection decisions.

Standard Entry Requirements

Our Standard Entry Requirements are the grades that you will need to achieve to allow you to be considered for entry to a specific programme of study.

Minimum Entry Requirements

Our Minimum Entry Requirements are applicable to those applicants who have not had an equal opportunity to demonstrate their academic ability at school or college and are known as ‘widening access’ applicants. We also sometimes refer to this type of applicant as receiving a ‘contextual’ offer. We may be able to provide you with a contextual offer if you fall into one of the categories below:

1. You have been in care (care-experienced/care-leaver)
2. You are a young carer
3. You have government-recognised asylum or refugee status
4. You are estranged from your family or guardians
5. You live in an SIMD decile 1-4 (SIMD20/40)* Scottish postcode area
   *if you are unsure if you live in one of these areas you can check using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation Postcode calculator SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation)

If you fall into any of the first four categories above, please mention this on your UCAS application. We will automatically apply category 5 if it applies to you.

If you have already achieved the required grades for either our standard or minimum entry criteria, we may be able to offer you an unconditional offer for some course areas. If you have not yet achieved these grades, we may be able to make you a conditional offer, which will rely on you achieving further qualifications before you can be accepted on to a programme of study.

Further details of our Admissions processes can be found as follows:

• Check our Student Experience section of our Polices & Procedures webspage for the latest copy of our Admissions Procedure.
• Download our Admissions Statement for Entrants in 2022 (pdf)

Psychology graduates also use their skills and knowledge to enter a wide variety of alternative careers. As well as specific knowledge in psychology you will also gain a range of skills that employers value such as:

• Communication
• Numeracy
• Teamwork
• Computing
• Critical thinking
• Independent thinking

As alternatives to psychology careers, many psychology graduates enter industry or commerce sectors in roles such as:

• Market researchers
• Personnel managers
• Teachers
• Civil servants
• Researchers
• Careers advisors
• Charity/non-governmental organisation sector workers

Check the British Psychological Society website for further information on psychology and careers options.

A wide range of postgraduate courses/study options exist including:

• Educational Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Forensic Psychology
• Health Psychology
• Occupational Psychology
• Counselling Psychology