Overview
Our BSc Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience (including foundation Year) will be suitable for you if your academic qualifications do not yet meet our entrance requirements for the three-year version of this course and you want a programme that increases your subject knowledge as well as improves your academic skills to support your academic performance.
This four-year course includes a foundation year (Year Zero), followed by a further three years of study. During your Year Zero, you study three academic subjects relevant to your chosen course as well as a compulsory academic skills module, with additional English language for non-English speakers.
After successful completion of Year Zero in our Essex Pathways Department, you progress to complete your course with our Department of Psychology. At Essex, our BSc Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience explores perceptions, decisions, prejudices, motivations, friendships and memory. This contemporary area of psychology investigates areas ranging from vision, hearing and touch to the mechanisms underlying language, action, attention, emotion and social processes. Our Centre for Brain Science allows you to discover the neurophysiological processes that take place in our bodies and brains.
We provide one of the most immersive and exciting experiences of studying the human mind in the UK. You learn from our researchers and can work together in the same space via our Research Experience Scheme (RES), which gives you the opportunity to work one-on-one with a psychologist as their research assistant.
Our expert staff
Our psychology lecturers include award-winning teachers and prize-winning researchers who are international experts in their own research areas.
The Cognitive and Sensory Neuroscience Group research brain function and human behaviour. Recently they have been working on projects on the neural processes underlying language production, how motivations are communicated through tone of voice, and how the brain performs 3D vision. They previously developed the BioAid mobile phone app that turns an iPhone into a biologically inspired hearing aid.
The Cognitive and Developmental Psychology Group work are researching attention, language, decision-making, and memory. Recent projects have investigated the psychology of energy reductions, the enhancement of human memory through technology, and improvements in the usability and design of transport maps.
The Social and Health Psychology Group work on motivations, needs, intercultural contact, and sexual attraction. Recent projects include the impacts of living and studying abroad, and how personal relative deprivation is linked to problem gambling.
Specialist facilities
By studying within our Essex Pathways Department for your foundation year, you will have access to of the facilities that the University of Essex has to offer, as well as those provided by our department to support you:
- We provide computer labs for internet research; classrooms with access to PowerPoint facilities for student presentations; AV facilities for teaching and access to web-based learning materials.
- Our new Student Services Hub will support you and provide information for all your needs as a student.
- Our social space is stocked with magazines and newspaper, and provides an informal setting to meet your lecturers, tutors and friends.
The Department of Psychology is committed to giving you access to state-of-the-art facilities in higher education, housed entirely within our purpose-built psychology building on our Colchester Campus:
- Dedicated laboratories including a virtual reality suite and an observation suite.
- Specialist areas to study visual and auditory perception, developmental psychology and social psychology.
- Study the development of perceptual and cognitive abilities in infants in our Babylab.
- Our multimillion pound Centre for Brain Science (CBS) allows staff to investigate brain activity, and to measure eye movements and other physiological responses.
Your future
Psychology now influences an increasing range of fields, from working with clinical disorders, to managing education training. Today it is widely used in industry, sport and employment to improve performance, as well as affecting legal and health matters.
Our students go on to follow diverse career paths. Our degree helps many to pursue careers as clinical, forensic, educational, or occupational psychologists. Others work in related fields such as special educational needs, social work, or mental health care. However, many graduates pursue successful careers further afield, working in areas like management, human resources, financial services, the media, information technology, and market research.
For example, some of our recent graduates have gone on to work for a wide range of high-profile companies, including:
- East of England Strategic Health Authority
- The Crown Prosecution Service
- M&G Investments
- NHS Suffolk
- Accenture
- The BBC
We also work with our University’s Student Development Team to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities.
Why we’re great
- You have unparalleled access to research equipment such as EEG, TMS and eye tracking.
- We have a vibrant Psychology Society offering student-led social events and activities.
- Our Research Experience Scheme (RES) gives you the opportunity to work one-on-one with a psychologist as their research assistant.
Structure
Course structure
We offer a flexible course structure with a mixture of core/compulsory modules, and optional modules chosen from lists.
Our research-led teaching is continually evolving to address the latest challenges and breakthroughs in the field, therefore all modules listed as subject to change. To view the compulsory modules and full list of optional modules currently on offer, please view the programme specification via the link below.
Teaching and learning disclaimer
Following the impact of the pandemic, we made changes to our teaching and assessment to ensure our current students could continue with their studies uninterrupted and safely. These changes included courses being taught through blended delivery, normally including some face-to-face teaching, online provision, or a combination of both across the year.
The teaching and assessment methods listed show what is currently approved for 2022 entry; changes may be necessary if, by the beginning of this course, we need to adapt the way we’re delivering them due to the external environment, and to allow you to continue to receive the best education possible safely and seamlessly.
