Psychology with Foundation Year

Please check the Sheffield Hallam University website for the latest information.

This course is moving into one of our new buildings at City campus. Teaching will be delivered at our Collegiate campus during the 2024/25 academic year while we get our new facilities ready. After that you will study in brand new facilities at City campus.

Course Summary

• Prepare for the degree with an extra foundation year at the start.

• Progress to a degree that is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS)

• Develop your knowledge and scientific understanding of the core areas of psychology.

• Gain experience in real-life settings through work placements.

Fascinated by human behaviour, curious about thoughts and intrigued by feelings? This is the course for you. It examines what drives us, from brain physiology to learning, genes, environment, social groups, and individual differences in personality and motivation.

How You Learn

All our courses are designed around a set of key principles based on engaging you with the world, collaborating with others, challenging you to think in new ways, and providing you with a supportive environment in which you can thrive.

This foundation year is an entry route if you do not meet the entry requirements for our BSc (Hons) Psychology course, if you are not yet ready for degree-level study, or if you are returning to study and would like to spend time getting up to speed with the demands of learning before embarking on a degree.

You will share the foundation year with other Psychology, Sociology, Politics, Applied Social Science, Law, Criminology and Policing foundation students, before moving on to your degree.You are taught by academics with specialist knowledge and expertise in a range of areas including social psychology, forensic psychology, developmental psychology, health and work psychology.

Applied Learning

Following completion of the foundation year, and in progressing onto the BSc (Hons) Psychology degree, you will have a range of opportunities available to you to apply your learning.

Work Placements

You will have the opportunity to arrange a work-placement in your third year of the course. Examples of settings include schools, mental health organisations, police and other legal services.

Organisations currently offering placements include St Anne's Mental Health Service, The Hesley Group autism care provider, Sheffield Children's Hospital (NHS), Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Drug and alcohol service (RDASH), Sheffield MENCAP, City Hearts human trafficking support service and Cavendish Cancer Care.

There are opportunities to study abroad at one of our partner universities with the possibility of funding through the Erasmus+ programme (until 2023) or the Turing Scheme.

Study Abroad

You can study abroad for one semester in your third year at one of our partner universities. Examples of our current partner institutions include Georgia Southern University in the US, Trent University and Carleton University in Canada, Queensland University of Technology, LaTrobe University and Deakin University in Australia, University of Jyvaskyla in Finland, Tallinn University in Estonia, the University of Warsaw in Poland, and Aahus University in Denmark.

Networking Opportunities

You attend lectures from visiting guests such as clinical psychologists, police officers, prison officers, forensic psychologists, health psychologists and speech and language therapists.

We also hold recruitment presentations from psychology-specific employers. Recent guests have included the Cambian Group, Civil Service, Good Days Project and Hesley Group.