Overview

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Discover more about Psychology at Manchester

Course overview

  • Learnabout how psychology can be applied to health.
  • Upon completion, thisBPS-accredited Stage 1 course enables you to start Stage 2 training as a health psychologist.
  • Course commended by the BPS for accessible, accommodating and approachable staff and project supervisors that provide excellent student support.
  • Be part of one of the UK's largest groups of health psychologists and researchers.
  • Have the opportunity to take a work placement (up to 75 hours).

Open days

The University holds regular open days, where you will have the opportunity to tour the campus and find out more about our facilities and courses. On this day, you will find out more about the course and meet academic and admissions staff who will be able to answer any questions you have. For more information, see Open days .

Contact details

School/Faculty
Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health
Telephone
+44 (0)161 529 4563
Email
Website
https://www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/study/psychology/
School/Faculty overview
Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health

Courses in related subject areas

Use the links below to view lists of courses in related subject areas.

Entry requirements

Academic entry qualification overview

We require you to have:

  • An honours degree (minimum Upper Second) in psychology that confers Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) status with the British Psychological Society (BPS). If you are unsure whether your degree gives you eligibility for the GBC, you can check whether your degree was accredited for your intake year on the BPS website. Home students with a degree that is not listed may need to take an accredited conversion course prior to applying. If you are an overseas student and your degree was not accredited by the BPS you can apply for graduate membershipon the BPS website. Please note that due to potential delays it is recommended that you submit your GBC application by 1st June 2025 at the latest.
  • A minimum of 2:1 in all BSc research methods units and the dissertation.

English language

International students must demonstrate English proficiency through a secure and approved testing system.

We ask for English language proof if you are from non-majority English speaking countries (a list of majority English speaking countries, as defined by the UK Home Office, can be found here).

Specifically, we require a minimum of:

  • IELTS: 7.0 in all sections.
  • TOEFL: 100, including 25 in the written section.

See further information about requirements for your country .

English language test validity

Some English Language test results are only valid for two years. Your English Language test report must be valid on the start date of the course.

Fees and funding

Fees

For entry in the academic year beginning September 2026, the tuition fees are as follows:

  • MSc (full-time)
    UK students (per annum): £13,100
    International, including EU, students (per annum): £33,600
  • MSc (part-time)
    UK students (per annum): £6,550
    International, including EU, students (per annum): £16,800

Further information for EU students can be found on our dedicated EU page.

The fees quoted above will be fully inclusive for the course tuition, administration and computational costs during your studies.

All fees for entry will be subject to yearly review and incremental rises per annum are also likely over the duration of courses lasting more than a year for UK/EU students (fees are typically fixed for international students for the course duration at the year of entry).

For general fees information please visit postgraduate fees . Always contact the department if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

Self-funded international applicants for this course will be required to pay a deposit of £1,000 towards their tuition fees before a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) is issued. This deposit will only be refunded if immigration permission is refused. We will notify you about how and when to make this payment.

Policy on additional costs

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

Scholarships/sponsorships

For the latest scholarship and bursary information please visit the fees and funding page.

Application and selection

How to apply

Please apply viaour online application form .

In your personal statement please tell us why you are particularly interested in studying Health Psychology at The University of Manchester.

Applications are assessed throughout the year and offers will be made to successful candidates.

We reserve the right to close applications if the course is full and we may operate a waiting list.

Please note that the part-time option is only available to home students. The full-time option is available to all.

Advice to applicants

In total we requiretwo academic references. One must be included in the application form along with detailed academic transcripts. A second reference will be requested from you post-application.

Applications will be assessed on an ongoing basis. Please submit your application as soon as possible.

The panel willseek strong grades in research methods/statistics units (a minimum of 2:1). If your course does not include dedicated research methods/statistics units, please provide details ofthe parts of your degree that included research methods and your grades.

CVs will not be considered - only fully completed applications and additional requested documentation (second reference) will be considered by the admissions tutor.

How your application is considered

Applicants will be rated on the following criteria:

  • a good first degree in psychology (at least Upper Second);
  • good grades in research method units at degree level (minimum 2:1 in all research method units). Minimum of 2:1 in the dissertation.
  • a Personal Statement on motivation for studying Health Psychology at The University of Manchester.

Re-applications

If you applied in the previous year and your application was not successful, you may apply again.

Your application will be considered against the standard course entry criteria for that year of entry.

We may draw upon all information from your previous applications or any previous registrations at the University as a student when assessing your suitability for your chosen course.

Course details

Course description

Are you interested in how psychology can be applied to health, illness and healthcare, and how interventions can be used to improve outcomes and the experience of healthcare?

Our MSc in Health Psychology is designed for students interested in a career in health psychology and has been accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS).

On successful completion of a BPS-accredited MSc in Health Psychology, students who hold BPS Graduate Basis for Chartership can continue to Stage 2 training to become Chartered Psychologists with the BPS and to become registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as Registered Health Psychologists.

You will learn from staff at the Manchester Centre for Health Psychology , covering topics such as:

  • key theories in health psychology and how to apply them;
  • current approaches to changing health-related behaviour at individual, population and regulatory levels;
  • the interaction between psychological processes (cognitions, emotions, behaviour) and disease and illness;
  • the ways in which social-cultural factors contribute to health;
  • advanced research methods and analysis techniques in both quantitative and qualitative research;
  • the role and scope of health psychology within academic and healthcare settings.

You will also have the opportunity to attend research seminars.

PhD with integrated master's

If you're planning to undertake a PhD after your master's, our Integrated PhD programme will enable you to combine your postgraduate taught course with a related PhD project in biology, medicine or health.

Special features

Training in a research-active environment

Our training covers a broad range of research methods taught by leading experts in their field.

We prepare you for a future research-active career, whether as an academic, health psychology trainee or other research or practitioner role.

You will benefit from being part of a dynamic department with opportunities to attend research seminars and learn about the work of staff, students and health psychology trainees.

Flexible learning

You can choose to study full-time or part-time (home students only), enabling you to fit learning around your other commitments.

Work placements

Voluntary work placements are available. These are up to 75 hours and can be completed in a block over the summer or continuously throughout the full year. Work placements include working in a variety of settings (eg schools, hospitals, universities, and other organisations) with trained Stage 2 health psychologists and research teams.

Teaching and learning

You will learn through blended learning. This will involve some asynchronous material that you will be expected to work through before attending an online or in person synchronous session.

All course units are supported by the use of a virtual learning environment (VLE) through which you can access learning materials, reading lists and other accompanying resources.

Each course unit on the VLE also has its own discussion board, where you can post questions and interact with staff and other students on the course.

A significant amount of teaching and learning will take place through the dissertation unit (60 credits), where you will be expected to take a lead role in developing a research project with regular support, input, and mentorship from their project supervisor.

You will have the opportunity to work collaboratively with influential, research-active staff, to produce a high quality dissertation using qualitative, quantitative or mixed research methods.

For examples of published student research projects please see our recent work on:

You will learn first-hand from researchers, practitioners and individuals who have lived experience of psychological and physical health problems, giving you an invaluable insight into these difficulties.

Our programme team work to support the individual needs of our students. You will be allocated a personal academic advisor who will guide your academic and professional development, but also provide pastoral support.

This course is led by Dr Daniela Ghio

Find out more about postgraduate teaching and learning methods at Manchester.

Coursework and assessment

We use a range of assessment methods, including exams, essays, presentations, portfolios, reflective logs, and a dissertation.

Course unit details

Full-time students will take four 15-credit taught units in each of Semester 1 and Semester 2. These will be taught using blended learning. For some units there will be asynchronous materials for you to work through prior to a synchronoussession (some of these will be online and some will be in person). Other units will be taught workshop style, which is an interactive lecture. Two ofthe synchronous unitswill be taught on Mondays, the other two on Thursdays. Part-time students will take two taught units each semester in each year of their studying (such that they will be expected to attend classes on one day of the week each year).

In addition, all students will be allocated a supervisor for the dissertation (60 credits), a unit that runs for the full year (students are also expected to work on the dissertation over the summer). The dissertation consists of an independent piece of research. Students will also have the option to undertake a voluntary work placement unit either over the course of the year or in an intensive period over the summer.

Note: we are aware that you may have other commitments outside of the MSc (e.g. employment) and we fit teaching into two days of the week to help you to manage multiple commitments. However, this is an intensive, demanding course, so you need to make sure that you are able to fit in full-time (35-40 hours) (or 17-20 hours part-time) studying hours around external commitments.

Example units

Semester 1:

  • Critical, Creative and Comprehensive Research Methodologies
  • Professional Issues: Academic Skills
  • Critical, Creative and Comprehensive Systematic Reviewing
  • Psychology in Clinical Practice 1
  • Health and Society

Semester 2:

  • Critical, Creative and Comprehensive Research Analysis
  • Mind and Body
  • Health Behaviour Change
  • Professional Issues: Workplace Skills

This course is taught in parallel with the MSc in Clinical and Health Psychology and students on both courses take the same units for the first semester.

Course unit list

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
PSYC60001 15 Mandatory
PSYC60010 60 Mandatory
PSYC69741 15 Mandatory
PSYC69802 15 Mandatory
PSYC69822 15 Mandatory
PSYC69831 15 Mandatory
PSYC69842 15 Mandatory
PSYC69851 15 Mandatory
Professional Issues: Academic Skills PSYC69940 0 Mandatory
PSYC69942 15 Mandatory
PSYC66660 0 Optional
Displaying 10 of 11 course units
Display all course units

What our students say

I greatly enjoyed my time on this course. The range of units expanded my knowledge and fuelled my passion for the subject.  Specifically, the opportunity to complete a mini systematic review has been a huge benefit to me since I have graduated. Having this experience secured me interviews for many research related roles and has now given me a practical foundation upon which to build my knowledge at PhD level.

The staff on the course are lovely and supportive as well as being knowledgeable and up-to-date in their respective fields. My time at Manchester provided me with many practical skills and a confidence I was surprised to see in myself.

Lucy Hulme, 2021

'Completing the MSc Health Psychology course was an enjoyable and worthwhile experience for me. The dissertation was a particular highlight as it allowed me to work on a piece of research from idea conception to the write-up of the study in journal format. I gained a true appreciation of what the research process is like and grew my research skills to a position that has continued to benefit my career.

The staff are lovely and encouraging and have continued to support me. They are truly dedicated to health psychology and are committed their students, whether that be by helping with applications for future study or by providing a range of placement options.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on this course and it has provided me with numerous skills that I have taken forward with me as I complete my PhD. Particularly it has helped me to develop a love for health psychology and increased my confidence in my abilities, for which I will always be grateful.

Helena Bilsborough 2021

Read more at the Biology, Medicine and Health Student Blog

Facilities

You will be able to access and benefit from the excellent range of facilities throughout the University, including our libraries (one of the best resourced in the country), careers, student support and IT services.

Disability support

Practical support and advice for current students and applicants is available from the Disability Advisory and Support Service .

Careers

Career opportunities

The MSc in Health Psychology provides the knowledge and skills needed to start Stage 2 in Health Psychology training.

The strong grounding we provide in research and analytic methods is valuable to those wishing to progress onto a research career, a PhD, or training programmes where research skills are emphasised.

The knowledge and understanding we help develop in relation to theory, evidence and practice, will also help if you are considering careers in clinical and applied roles, as well as policy-making and service development positions.

Our work placements will allow you to gain valuable experience in roles related to Health Psychology and increase your employability upon graduation.

Our unit on professional development has been designed to help further support you in pursuing your future career goals.

Our range of assessments across the course give you the skills to apply your knowledge real world activities.

  • Find out more about health psychology careers on the BPS website.
  • Find out more about research careers in psychology on the BPS website.

Accrediting organisations

This course is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS), which has commended various aspects of the course. Its comments include:

  • The programme team are recognised for embedding a variety of assessments.
  • They have succeeded in fostering a sense of community among staff and students and that the student experience is at the centre of the provision.
  • They have great student support for their cohorts by accommodating, accessible and approachable staff and project supervisors.

Regulated by the Office for Students

The University of Manchester is regulated by the Office for Students (OfS). The OfS aims to help students succeed in Higher Education by ensuring they receive excellent information and guidance, get high quality education that prepares them for the future and by protecting their interests. More information can be found at the OfS website.

You can find regulations and policies relating to student life at The University of Manchester, including our Degree Regulations and Complaints Procedure, on our regulations website.