Educational Psychology MA - Ireland or the UK?

Just to let you know, in the Republic of Ireland it's now a 3 year doctorate course, not a masters. Dundee and Scotland in general is still a 2 Year masters. It's a doctorate in the rest of the UK.

I've no idea about Scotland but in England you typically find your placements yourself within their local authorities and will be paid a salary/bursary throughout the 3 years, not sure if they pay your fees. In Belfast (where I am so I know most about it) they organise most of your placements for you and you get a bursary for the 3 years of training and they cover your fees. Funding means a commitment to work there for a number of years afterwards so keep that in mind. In the Republic there's no funding available at all and students have to pay the full fees...

In terms of getting on to the course it might be more possible to get paid work experience in the UK.. I didn't do it myself but I know that basically everything I looked at in Ireland wanted you to work for free (or the dreaded Job Bridge!). From what I've seen the quality of your experience and how you reflect upon it in a psychological and personal way is more important in applications than sheer quantity of experience.

ahen7 wrote:

Thanks a mil NeonCookies, really helpful. UCD have reopened Ed Psyc at Masters level this year but they are still doing the doctorate as well. Not sure the reasoning behind them starting up the masters again but I do seem to think I would be better off going abroad.

So they have - how strange! The following is copied from their course description just for the sake of info:

Professional training in Educational Psychology is generally available at two levels, Master's level and Professional Doctorate level, and both options are available at UCD School of Education. The MA in Educational Psychology is the standard professional qualification in many jurisdictions. However, within the Irish context, the professional placement experience available within the MA in Educational Psychology programme is unlikely to enable graduates to avail of the full range of available career options post-qualification, such as in Irish healthcare settings. The MA in Educational Psychology programme is, therefore, more likely to be applicable to international applicants rather than Irish applicants.

So basically the MA won't qualify you to work in Ireland. I think if you want the best chance to work anywhere in Ireland or the UK (no idea about other countries) you should go for a doctorate level course.

I guess it may have something to do with the panel process for psychology posts within the HSE. Jobs in the HSE are now open to all types of psychologist (clin, counselling & ed psych), but I guess having a doctorate in ed psych would allow for a better competition against clin/psychs, counselling psychs who are doctoral level.

On a personal note, I'm not inferring from te above that clin/counselling psychs are more qualified to do the job that ed psychs! There are many services in the HSE where an ed psych is better suited to the work than other types of psychologist e.g school aged teams, early intervention etc!

Hey Sarah12003, I'm in the very same position as you. I've a primary teaching degree, and am currently teaching but want to get into educational psychology. By the looks of things its a really long route! I've seen that DBS do a part-time Higher Diploma in psychology (takes 2 years) and that's Level 8 and PSI accredited... so that could work in terms of getting into Educational Psychology.