Information for Applicants

Welcome to the applicants' pages and thank you for considering Lancaster as a place for your clinical training. The Lancaster admissions process is slightly different from many others and so we have outlined our current processes in detail and shown how you can submit a successful application.

Lancaster University has been consistently ranked as one of the top universities in the UK by The Times, The Guardian and the Complete University Guide. The Lancaster University programme is proud to be located in a very beautiful part of the country, with easy links to the Lake District and the Trough of Bowland. From our specific programme perspective we are also proud of the developments we have made over the years to try and make our programme as supportive, responsive and appropriate to current training needs as possible.

In terms of our values, then doing our best to ensure equal access to clinical training for all individuals has been at the heart of the development of Lancaster's admissions and selections policies over the years. We firmly believe that no-one should be excluded from the opportunity to train as a clinical psychologist because of their ethnicity, sexuality, financial circumstances, age or gender. We also believe that every reasonable adjustment, to help those disabled by society to meet the Health and Care Professions Council standards of proficiency for practitioner clinical psychologists, must be made.

Please also see the Health and Care Professions Council guidance: 'A disabled person's guide to becoming a health professional':

http://www.hcpc-uk.org/publications/index.asp?id=111#publicationSearchResults

If you are accepted onto this clinical psychology training programme then you will be a salaried member of the NHS (band 6) for the duration of your training. You will also be registered as a full time postgraduate student at Lancaster University but you will earn approximately £25,528 p.a. in your first year of training, rising to £27,625 in your third year (early 2012 figures). Please be prepared for the need to travel some distance to placements, and within placements during the working day, as our placements are located over a wide geographical area.

The Lancaster DClinPsy Admissions Handbook has detailed, step by step information about our admissions process. It covers topics mentioned briefly on these web pages in much more depth and will help you make an informed decision about whether to apply to study and work with us. Please follow this link here.

Applications

Please note that all applications to the programme must be made through the Clearing House.

Full details of our applications process are here.

At the moment, we expect to welcome 24 trainees in the 2013 intake.

The start date for the 2013 intake will be 1st September 2013.

Selection Process

The selection process takes place over 4 stages. The first stage is a check that applicants satisfy our entry criteria (for details follow link above), at stage two we ask all those who meet the criteria to sit a written task at Lancaster University. This looks for skills in written communication and for the ability to synthesise information into a coherent and concise argument. There is a small knowledge and skills element to the task. We have been asked why we prioritise written communication by ensuring that all proceeding to the next stage have passed the test. The answer is that written communication and the ability to synthesise information is essential to successful completion of the programme. It is not more important than the potential to develop (or already possess) clinical skills. Stage three, the selection event, ensures that all offered a place on the programme have these skills and/or the potential to develop them. We hope our written task doesn’t discourage potential applicants who have been out of education for some time or those with dyslexia. We give extra time on the test to all who inform us that they have dyslexia in advance. We know that applicants with dyslexia often pass the test and those offered a place complete the programme successfully. We encourage all applicants to use the examples of previous tests on the website to practise before taking it. Stage four occurs after an informal offer of a place and consists of checks and NHS references. After satisfactory completion of stage 4, a formal offer of a place is made. Please follow the link above for more information.

All applicants who progress to the written task, will be offered the opportunity to come to Lancaster University to sit the test under exam conditions. This written task will take place on 26th February 2013. The test cannot be taken online. Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application by email by 10th February 2013. Further details about the test will also be issued at this stage, via email. A timely response will be required by applicants invited to attend.

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