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Psychology (with a professional placement year)

Entry requirements


A level

A,B,B-A,A,B

You must have GCSE (or equivalent) Mathematics, with at least grade 5 (grade B). You should also have a broad range of GCSEs 9-4 (A*-C), including good grades in relevant subjects.

Pass Diploma with at least 39 level 3 credits at Merit or above including 24-27 credits at Distinction. The Access course should contain Psychology or be in Science or Social Science. You must have GCSE (or equivalent) Mathematics, with at least grade 5 (grade B).

We take the EPQ into account when considering your application and it can be useful in the summer when your results are released if you have narrowly missed the conditions of your offer. We do not routinely include the EPQ in the conditions of your offer but we sometimes offer alternative conditions that include the EPQ. If you wish to discuss this further please contact Admissions at [email protected]

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

32-34

This score should be from the full IB Diploma.

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

DDD-DDM

The BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma should be in Applied Science or Health and Social Care. You must have GCSE (or equivalent) Mathematics, with at least grade 5 (grade B). You should also have a broad range of GCSEs grade 9-4 (A*-C), including good grades in relevant subjects.

Scottish Higher

A,A,B,B,B-A,A,A,B,B


You will need Scottish National 5 in Mathematics at grade B

UCAS Tariff

128-153

We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.

About this course


Course option

4years

Sandwich | 2024

Subject

Psychology

**=8th in the UK for Psychology (Shanghai 2022 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects)**

**=17th in the UK for Psychology (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023)**

**Top 20 in the UK for our research overall in Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience in REF 2021 (Times Higher Education)**

**About the course**

Study in one of the UK’s largest schools of psychology, where you will learn from passionate academics who are world-leaders in the areas that they teach.

You will also have the opportunity to apply to do a professional placement in your third year. You can tailor your course by choosing from an extensive range of modules and be confident that you’ll be supported by expert staff throughout your degree. Whatever your interest – clinical, child development, cognitive, forensic, health, social and applied psychology or neuroscience – we have the expertise to support you.

You’ll enjoy some of the most advanced research facilities for studying psychology anywhere in the country. These include a child development research suite and the Clinical Imagine Sciences Centre housing MRI and PET-CT.

**Accreditation**

This course is accredited by the British Psychological Society.

**About Sussex**

Sussex graduates change the world. Our students become the leaders of the future, making discoveries, improving lives and changing things for the better.

Study with us to join a welcoming and inspiring community of staff and students from more than 140 countries.

**Location**

We shape the world from a fantastic campus on the UK’s beautiful south coast.

We are the only UK university surrounded by a national park, so you can step off campus to explore the hills and woodlands of the South Downs. The vibrant, colourful and creative seaside city of Brighton & Hove is just nine minutes away.

With Brighton voted the happiest city in England for students, (Student Living Survey, Sodexo, 2018) there can be few better places to study.

Modules

See the modules you will study by year by going to the 'view course details' link.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£25,000
per year
International
£25,000
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

University of Sussex

Department:

Psychology

Read full university profile

What students say


We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.

76%
Psychology

How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Psychology (non-specific)

Teaching and learning

81%
Staff make the subject interesting
89%
Staff are good at explaining things
73%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
64%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

69%
Library resources
85%
IT resources
83%
Course specific equipment and facilities
75%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

83%
UK students
17%
International students
21%
Male students
79%
Female students
88%
2:1 or above
7%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

B
C
B

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Psychology (non-specific)

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£19,510
high
Average annual salary
95%
med
Employed or in further education
68%
high
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

15%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals
10%
Teaching and educational professionals
9%
Welfare and housing associate professionals

20 years ago, this was a specialist degree for would-be psychologists but now it is the model of a modern, flexible degree subject. One of the UK's fastest-growing subject at degree level, and the second most popular subject overall (it recently overtook business studies), one in 23 of all graduates last year had psychology degrees. As you'd expect with figures like that, jobs in psychology itself are incredibly competitive, so to stand a chance of securing one, you need to get a postgraduate qualification (probably a doctorate in most fields, especially clinical psychology) and some relevant work experience. But even though there are so many psychology graduates — far more than there are jobs in psychology, and over 13,800 in total last year — this degree has a lower unemployment rate than average because its grads are so flexible and well-regarded by business and other industries across the economy. Everywhere there are good jobs in the UK economy, you'll find psychology graduates - and it's hardly surprising as the course helps you gain a mix of good people skills and excellent number and data handling skills. A psychology degree ticks most employers' boxes — but we'd suggest you don't drop your maths modules.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Psychology (non-specific)

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£19k

£19k

£23k

£23k

£31k

£31k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

Explore these similar courses...

Higher entry requirements
University of Nottingham | Nottingham
Psychology
BSc (Hons) 3 Years Sandwich 2024
UCAS Points: 112-168
Lower entry requirements
University of Sussex | Brighton and Hove
Neuroscience with Psychology
BSc (Hons) 3 Years Sandwich 2024
UCAS Points: 120-147

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This is what the university has told Ucas about the criteria they expect applicants to satisfy; some may be compulsory, others may be preferable.

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This is the percentage of applicants to this course who received an offer last year, through Ucas.

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This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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Course location and department:

This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):

We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.

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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

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Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here