Psychology (Developmental and Educational) BSc (Hons)

At the University of Northampton, everything we do, from funded trips to paid internships, is to give you everything you need to make a difference when you leave.

If you join our full-time Psychology, education and development, degree at Northampton, you will receive a laptop when your course begins*. The laptops are built to a bespoke custom specification ideal for use in the seminar room, collaborative group work or studying at home.

Whatever your ambitions, we’re here to help you to achieve them. We’ll support you to identify the skills you’re learning during your course, find your strengths and secure practical experience so that when it comes to applying for jobs or further study you’ll feel confident in standing out from the crowd. We’ve created the Northampton Employment Promise because we are so confident that if you focus on your studies and complete one of our awards you’ll be highly employable by the time you graduate. Putting you in a great position to secure employment or continue your studies.

To check out the full list of perks, visit our Student Perks page or dedicated International Perks page.

* UK fee payers only (see Terms and Conditions for further details)

The Integrated Foundation Year (IFY) offers a new and exciting route into studying for a degree, attracting ambitious and driven students who are willing to learn and advance.

If you have non-standard qualifications or do not quite meet the admissions requirements we can offer you a fantastic opportunity to study a four-year programme that includes an Integrated Foundation Year. The Integrated Foundation Year will help you develop the theoretical/practical and academic skills you need to successfully progress to the full award.

Our four-year courses will enable you to successfully follow the degree pathway of your choice while gaining essential study skills. The foundation year of your chosen degree will be studied on a full-time basis and is aimed at supporting the transition to higher education. Years two, three and four are then studied as a standard degree programme.

What is developmental and educational psychology?

Developmental psychology is the scientific study of changes that occur in humans over the lifespan and understanding how and why they happen. Educational psychology involves the application of psychological theory and research to understand learning and improve educational experiences. In the Psychology (Developmental and Educational) degree at The University of Northampton, you get to develop more specialised knowledge of these areas within your psychology programme.

What does this educational and developmental psychology degree offer?

• a flexible psychology degree offering specialist coverage of educational and developmental psychology
• built-in opportunities for work-based experience
• an accreditation from the British Psychological Society – the first step to a career as a psychologist
• excellent student support and accessible staff
• blended teaching approaches and assessment methods

What can I do with a Developmental and Educational Psychology degree?

With a psychology degree, you can specialise within different pathways and develop within an area of your choice in the field of psychology. Upon completion of this course, and depending on degree classification, you will be eligible for a British Psychological Society (BPS) Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC). This is the first step in pursuing professional training as an educational, clinical, counselling, occupational, health or forensic psychologist. You could pursue a career as an academic psychologist, conducting research and teaching in higher education. More information about psychology careers can be found on the BPS website.

However, within this Developmental and Educational Psychology course, you can also choose to follow various career paths outside of the psychological profession. The invaluable set of skills and knowledge base that psychology students gain throughout this course enables them to succeed in a range of careers.

The work-based elements of this programme provide valuable career based skills. As well as our annual Psychology Careers Event, at the University of Northampton, we also offer other volunteering opportunities through our Changemaker Hub, Employability Plus recognition, STEAM Opportunities and support from our careers team.

What do graduates of the programme tend to do afterwards?

Our Developmental and Educational Psychology graduates have gone into a range of professions. These include educational psychology, clinical psychology, teaching, special educational needs, academic research, health (such as paramedic science, occupational therapy), mental health and early years provision. If you are wishing to pursue a career in teaching, educational psychology or education related fields then this course will help you develop your knowledge and skills that can be transferred to these areas. However, you would not be restricted to career choices in these areas. The degree still enables you to access the full range of careers available to those studying the general Psychology course.

I don’t know what career I want to pursue yet. Will this Developmental and Educational Psychology degree programme limit my options when I graduate?

No. Although this is a specialised Psychology degree, it still maintains all of the flexibility that you would have with a straight Psychology programme. The course is accredited by the British Psychological Society, meaning you are eligible for Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) when you graduate (assuming you achieve a 2.2 or above). This means that you could go into any of the professional areas of psychology (as detailed on the BPS website).

In addition, the knowledge and skills you gain through a psychology degree are also valued in a range of careers outside of Psychology. Transferrable skills that you can expect to develop across the course include critical thinking, writing and computer literacy. You will also become an effective communicator in a variety of different channels with thorough and ethical research practices. These skills are transferable across many different careers and therefore gives you the opportunity to develop yourself towards any route you would like to pursue. This is one of the main draws for a degree in Psychology. The skills that are acquired are widely applicable to many careers, so you are not limited to just working within psychology.

How is this programme different to studying single hons Psychology?

The Psychology (Developmental and Educational) programme is a pathway degree. This means that it follows the backbone of a standard Psychology degree but enables students to specialise in their chosen area of the subject along the way. You will cover all the core curriculum of a Psychology degree that is needed to meet the professional accreditation requirements, but you also get to study specialist modules in the field of developmental and educational psychology in each stage of the programme. You will be part of a smaller cohort of students studying this specialist pathway, and there are bespoke modules you take just for this route. Other modules will be taken alongside other Psychology students. This means you get the best of both worlds. You get to experience doing a Psychology degree and all that this involves, but you also will also be part of a group of students who have a specific interest in developmental and educational psychology and want to study these aspects in more depth.

How long is the degree?

The Developmental and Educational Psychology route here at the University is between 3-6 years, depending on your availability to study. This gives you the time to develop a foundational knowledge of psychology and appropriate research skills and develop towards the areas that are of interest to you. You will also have the time and support to explore career opportunities and areas of expertise, alongside our staff team.

Are there work placements?

Yes. The Developmental and Educational Psychology programme has work-based learning opportunities incorporated into each stage of the degree. During stage one, there is a short work experience placement in an educational setting to complete as part of a module assessment. This is expanded in stage two where you undertake a slightly longer educational work-based experience. In stage three, there is a module with an extensive applied experience in an educational setting. We also run an optional placement year, between stages two and three, giving you the opportunity to strengthen career skills alongside your degree, should you so wish.

How will I learn?

Teaching methods on the Psychology Development and Educational course include an innovative, active blended approach to learning. These methods make the acquisition of knowledge more dynamic and flexible for students than ever before. This involves face-to-face seminars, tutorials, practical or laboratory workshops and computer assisted learning. Independent and group work will be supplemented with online seminars, self-directed learning and virtual tasks.

You are encouraged to actively engage and participate with your course material both online and in class discussions to further enhance your learning. This includes a willingness to complete independent study alongside attending your classes. Practical work represents an important component of the educational and developmental psychology course in each of your three years of study. Throughout the course, you are exposed to different research approaches and will develop an ability to apply both quantitative and qualitative techniques to research questions. We have extensive online resources that support face-to-face contact in class.

You are taught by experienced, well-qualified staff that are experts within their disciplines. Staff in the Subject Group are active researchers, producing research that is nationally and internationally recognised.

How am I assessed?

A variety of assessment strategies are used at each level to ascertain your level of competence in a range of academic and transferable skills. These strategies include essays, practical reports, multiple-choice tests, oral presentations, time-constrained essays, seen and unseen examinations, critical reviews, group project work, patchwork blogs, audio-visual presentations, and reflective reports, for example.