Psychology (Research)

This MRes Psychology is a research-only degree that enables you to conduct extended supervised research in a focused area of contemporary psychology, such as brain and cognitive development, computational cognitive neuroscience, or health and lived experience.

Why choose this course?

• This course is ideal if you are a graduate in psychology or a related discipline with prior research skills training and are seeking to complete a specific, well-defined research project.

• It provides you with valuable experience of designing and running your own research project in psychological sciences under the supervision of a leading academic in the field.

• You will have the opportunity to attend research seminars and meet and network with world-class researchers in our School of Psychological Sciences and at leading Birkbeck research centres and institutes in the Bloomsbury area and from around the world.

• It will prepare you with a range of appropriate research skills and experiences if you have an ambition to carry out further research in any area of contemporary psychology, either at PhD level or in the private sector.

What you will learn

You will develop a critical appreciation of existing research and research methods in a chosen research area. You will also learn subject-specific IT skills and will gain experience and skills in designing, managing and reporting on an extended research project.

How you will learn

This MRes Psychology is available to study full- or part-time. It is mainly taught through one-to-one supervision meetings with your project supervisor. You will also attend research seminars and an introductory, taught course on postgraduate research as part of your training.

Highlights

• This MRes Psychology provides you with a potential route into the MPhil/PhD Psychology at Birkbeck.

• In the 2023 National Student Survey, Birkbeck's School of Psychological Sciences ranked 5th in the UK for teaching.

• We are consistently regarded as one of the top institutions teaching psychological sciences in the UK. Birkbeck’s research excellence overall was confirmed in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework with 83% of our research rated world-leading or internationally excellent.

• Birkbeck is strongly oriented towards research in psychological sciences and we are home to the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, the Health and Lived Experience Cluster, the Birkbeck - UCL Centre for Neuroimaging and the Centre for Cognition, Computation and Modelling.

Careers and employability

On successfully graduating from this MRes Psychology, you will have gained an array of important transferable skills, including in:

• research design and methodology

• critical thinking and essay writing

• experimental platform design

• advanced quantitative statistics

• presentation.

Some of our graduates from this course have gone on to progress their studies at MPhil/PhD level. They have also gone on to be employed at organisations including:

• charities, policy and non-governmental organisations

• primary and secondary schools

• the NHS.

We offer a comprehensive careers service - Careers and Enterprise - your career partner during your time at Birkbeck and beyond. At every stage of your career journey, we empower you to take ownership of your future, helping you to make the connection between your experience, education and future ambitions.