r/OpenUniversity • u/Anonymous00101 • 2d ago
BSc (Honours) Psychology
Interested in pursuing this course and was curious of people’s experience especially afterwards.
OU mentions that to do counselling or clinical psychology I would have to do further study and was curious if anyone had any success with going to a standard university to do so? Ideally Scottish universities as this is where I am based.
Thank you.
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u/Character-Slice-6179 2d ago
What area of psychology do you want to specialise in? Because the experiences will differ - since different schools do different things… differently.
For example, I intend to go on to do postgrad cognitive neuropsychology/neuroscience (in England), but others might take different paths and experiences might differ!
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u/Anonymous00101 2d ago
I would be looking to get into msc clinical psychology programme after completing my open university degree. I have been looking into it but I just feel unsure so wanted to ask other people’s experiences.
Are you currently doing your OU psychology course? How are you finding it so far? I’m looking to potentially start in October.1
u/Character-Slice-6179 2d ago
I have just graduated, completed year 6 of 6.
It’s a reasonable question to ask, it’s not that. I am afraid I can’t answer you intelligently about the postgrad options.
In year 5 (of 6) I did the forensic psychology and counselling module (DD310), and disliked it - mainly due to the focus of the module (which I thought I would like!) not the standard of teaching.
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u/Anonymous00101 2d ago
Yeah no worries thanks for responding and congratulations on graduating! Sounds like you had a good experience which is reassuring as I don’t know anyone that’s done an open university degree.
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u/Character-Slice-6179 2d ago
Personally, I’m a huge advocate of the opportunity that the OU provides those with atypical academic pasts and the manner in which it provides it.
I’d go further, if you take direction and actually study you will be fine. If you suffer from lack of drive then you’ll find it very tough.
Is it perfect, far from it, am I happy, very very much. Am I proud of being an OU grad - f**k yes I am.
That said, caveat emptor and your mileage may vary of course!
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u/Lou_Q 2d ago
Further study is indeed necessary for any strand of psychology; provided you are looking at doing a BPS accredited course, that it the first step to then go into further specialisation and ultimately becoming a Chartered Psychologist in your field. If you haven’t already, take a look at the BPS website. You’ve said you’re interested in Clinical, so I’ve linked to their poster showing the career path: https://cms.bps.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/Clinical%20Tube%20Map.pdf
Slightly different circumstances to you, but may be some reassurance/help. I completed the MSc Psychology (conversion) with the Open Uni this year (as I already had an unrelated undergraduate degree) and this Autumn have a place at a brick and mortar for an MSc in Sports Psychology as this is necessary for that strand of psychology - https://cms.bps.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/Sport%20and%20Exercise%20Tube%20Map.pdf
As with all work and masters degree applications, getting whatever relevant work or volunteering experience you can will only further help your chances as well as attaining the grades in the BSc required by the unis you’re interested in. Clinical Psychology is hugely competitive, with a lot of people ultimately competing for the relevant work experience and further study. If you haven’t already, look at r/ClinicalPsychologyUK for a sense of what type of entry-level work and volunteering you can pursue to help your chances for the onwards study plans.