Faculty of Arts
Psychology

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Faculty of Arts

1. Faculty of Arts requirements
2. Professional accreditation requirements
3. Requirements for a major
4. Honours entry
5. Honours requirements
6. For more information

Psychology is concerned with the study of human behaviour and experience. People trained in psychology work in a wide variety of areas in health, education, industry, commerce, welfare and government.

Psychology has been a part of a tradition of academic excellence and research achievement at the University of Melbourne since the late 1800s. The Department of Psychology, formally established in 1946, is the single department in the School of Behavioural Science, and is part of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. It is one of the largest departments of psychology in Australia.

The Department of Psychology undergraduate program has been designed to provide students with flexibility and choice in coursework areas and offers a broad range of subjects aimed at providing a thorough and extensive grounding in the discipline.

1. Faculty of Arts requirements

Students completing a major in psychology should note that they may not complete more than 150 points of psychology for credit towards the Bachelor of Arts degree.

2. Professional accreditation requirements

Students planning to complete a major in psychology should note:

The completion of a BA major in psychology does not qualify you to practise as a psychologist in Victoria. Registration is required with the Psychologists Registration Board of Victoria.

To be eligible to register with the Psychologists Registration Board the equivalent of six years of study is required. This comprises an accredited "four-year sequence" in psychology followed by either two years of postgraduate training or supervised experience.

This means that BA graduates who complete the BA with a major in psychology will need to apply for entry to, and successfully complete, fourth-year Honours in psychology to meet the "four-year sequence" requirement, see Honours entry. There are limited places available in the fourth-year Honours program in psychology. Entry is highly competitive.

On successful completion of fourth-year Honours in psychology an additional two years of training and/or experience must be completed before registration with the Psychologists Registration Board of Victoria may be sought.

3. Requirements for a major

A major in psychology consists of 125 points of study comprising:

two first-year psychology subjects (25 points); and
eight second and third-year psychology subjects (100 points) comprising seven compulsory and at least one elective subject.

Students should note that they are not required to complete all the second-year subjects in one academic year, however 512-220 Quantitative Methods for Psychology 2 should normally be taken in the second year of a student's sequence in psychology.

For more details on the structure of the major and the subjects available within the major, please see Psychology as a major in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences section.

4. Honours entry

The prerequisites for entry to fourth-year honours in psychology are:

completion of all the requirements for the BA; and
completion of an Australian Psychological Society accredited major in psychology; and
a weighted average grade in psychology subjects specified by the Department of Psychology. Please refer to Admission requirements in the section Honours in psychology for more detailed information on entry requirements.

Entry into honours must be approved by the Department of Psychology and the Faculty of Arts.

5. Honours requirements

Students should refer to the Course structure in the section Honours in psychology for information on the structure of the honours year.

6. For more information

Department of Psychology
School of Behavioural Science
12th Floor, Redmond Barry Building
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010
Tel: +61 3 8344 6377
Fax: +61 3 9347 6618
Email: enquiries@psych.unimelb.edu.au
Web: http://www.psych.unimelb.edu.au/