Psychology

What are you trying to find?
Why Psychology What can you do with a degree in Psychology Our courses Award winning experts How to apply to University

Why Psychology

Why study Psychology? "We’re 24th in the UK (2nd in Yorkshire) for Psychology in the Guardian League Tables 2025.

A lot goes on in the human mind, if you want to know more about mental processes, emotions, personality, and perceptions, understanding human psychology will help you to gain the essential skills that are relevant to a wide range of situations and careers.

Psychology is about real people, not hypothetical theories, so we’ll give you lots of chances to get practical experience and help you broaden your skills and experiences to make you attractive to potential employers in your chosen career. Our psychology labs have state-of-the-art equipment and you’ll be encouraged to think and apply your knowledge, looking at how psychological theories apply in the real world."

What can you do with a degree in Psychology

Psychology is more than just understanding the mind—it’s about improving lives and making a positive impact on society. A career in psychology allows you to explore human behaviour, support mental health, and contribute to personal and societal well-being. Whether you’re working with individuals to address mental health issues, conducting research to understand human behaviour, or helping organizations improve their work culture, psychology offers diverse opportunities to make a difference.

In roles like clinical psychologist, counsellor, or mental health practitioner, you’ll directly support people’s well-being. You could work in research to advance psychological theories, support individuals as a therapist, or contribute to workplace well-being as an occupational psychologist. As a forensic psychologist, you might study criminal behaviour to assist in legal proceedings, or as a health psychologist, helping people adopt healthier lifestyles to prevent illness and improve quality of life.

Our courses

Why I chose to study Psychology

Discover why Tom chose to study Psychology at the University of Huddersfield, reflecting on his journey from uncertainty to finding a course and university he truly loves.

Read the blog

Why I chose my course - Pyschology

Estelle shares her journey from considering moving away for university to choosing Huddersfield, highlighting the support, facilities, and academic experiences that made it the right fit for her.

Read the blog

Why I chose my course - Psychology and Criminology

Lia Collins, a third-year Psychology with Criminology student at Huddersfield, shares her journey from childhood fascination to university choice. She appreciates the supportive, student-focused environment and community at Huddersfield, making it a top choice for her studies.

Read the blog

Preparing you for your career

Our lecturers have a wide range of specialisms and are experts in several fields, enabling our programmes to be informed by cutting-edge research delivered by those who created it. including clinical psychology, neuroscience, criminal psychology, educational psychology, and health psychology, so if you’re hoping to pursue a particular career path, we can set you off in the right direction. Our staff work across a range of areas within Psychology in partnership with local, national and international organisations, ensuring our course and research content is applicable to real-world settings, and can be used to help to improve people’s lives.

You’ll have the opportunity to build your communication skills, assertiveness, ability to work in teams and presentation techniques – all of which are useful in many careers and professions. Once you leave Huddersfield you could be fully prepared for an inspiring career, previous students have gone on to work in education, healthcare, research, business and public services.

Accredited courses

All our psychology courses are accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS) who are the professional body for Psychologists in the UK. This means that you can be sure that the teaching you are receiving is of the highest quality and meets the requirements to prepare you for a career as a Psychologist. You’ll be able to apply for Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership if you graduate with a Lower Second Class Honours or higher.*

*Applied Psychology MPsych is awaiting BPS accreditation.

Whether you’re aiming to kick start your career in psychology, enhance your current career, or simply understand yourself and others better to make a positive impact in the world,  our Psychology Conversion Master’s will help you realise your ambitions.

Our Facilities

Our experts

We have many experts in Psychology. Here are a few of them:

Dr Christopher Bale

Senior Lecturer

Dr Bale's research focuses on self-perception, interpersonal relationships, and mental health. He holds a PhD exploring physical attractiveness and self-esteem and joined the university in 2008.

View their research profile

Dr. Chris Retzler

Senior Lecturer

Dr. Chris Retzler is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Huddersfield. His research explores cognitive neuroscience, focusing on learning, addiction, and decision-making using EEG and fMRI. He supervises projects on behavior, individual differ

View their research profile

David Peebles

Professor

Prof. David Peebles's research focuses on cognitive architectures, using computational models like ACT-R to explore how cognitive, perceptual, and motor processes interact during reasoning and problem-solving with external representations such as graphs.

View their research profile