Community Psychology MA

Course in brief

Community psychology brings social change to the forefront of the way that we understand and promote psychological wellbeing.

It provides an alternative to the standard model of psychological enquiry that foregrounds the individual at the expense of the collective, instead contextualising the difficulties faced by particular communities before seeking to develop solutions through participatory and action-oriented research.

The central focus of this course is to provide knowledge and training platforms that allow you to work towards addressing the institutional marginalisation and disempowerment that drives local and global community issues. It introduces critical, liberation and human rights perspectives, reflecting on traditional modes of scientific enquiry and what they mean for groups and individuals struggling with issues of marginalisation.

Our degree programme is among the few in the country that allow you to work directly with local communities to facilitate social change. With the help of our award-winning Community University Partnership Programme (Cupp), it gives you the opportunity to apply your skills as a psychologist and gain professional experience in the field.

This course will be of particular interest to those interested in developing a career in mental health.

Key facts

Location Brighton: Falmer

Full-time 1 year
Part-time 2 years (minimum)

Apply online

You can apply for 2016 and 2017: please check that you meet the entry requirements before you make your application.

Apply now for your place

Entry requirements

The entry requirements listed here are our typical offer for this course if you wish to begin studying with us in 2017. They should be used as a general guide.

We operate a flexible admissions policy – this means that you could receive a lower conditional offer than the typical offer, informed by our assessment of your complementary non-academic achievements and experiences. For courses that require interview or portfolio review, this may also be considered in the level of any conditional offer that follows if your application is successful.

Degree and/or experience
normally a 2.1 degree in a social science subject but candidates with professional qualifications and directly relevant work experience may be considered.

For non-native speakers of English
IELTS 6.5 overall, with 6.0 in writing and a minimum of 5.5 in the other elements.

International equivalencies

International equivalencies by country

Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bermuda
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burma (Myanmar)
Cameroon
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guyana
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kosovo
Kuwait
Latvia
Lebanon
Liechtenstein
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malaysia
Malawi
Malta
Mexico
Moldova
Montenegro
Morocco
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palestinian National Authority
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Syria
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tanzania
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visit our language institute

For English language preparation courses.

Visit our International College

For academic preparation courses.

Course in detail

Course structure

The course is primarily taught through intensive teaching sessions where modules run over blocks of two to three days, though some optional modules require weekly attendance.

Through lectures, workshops, seminars and the facilitation of community research partnerships, the course provides opportunities to explore the appropriateness and significance of how we work as community psychologists and to better understand the role of ideology inherent in the creation of an effective community psychology. It achieves this while retaining a degree of flexibility within the syllabus such that you are able to tailor your learning towards the kinds of areas most relevant to your work and interests.

The programme also offers an extended masters route for international students, allowing you to combine the degree itself with an English language course. Depending on your present language level, you will study English for between two and four months before starting your MA.

School of Applied Social Science student in seminar

Areas of study

Community psychology is a culturally relative discipline and therefore takes different forms in different parts of the world. To help you maintain an open-minded approach to the subject, we introduce you to both local and international examples of community psychology in practice.

The syllabus is informed by contemporary research into such diverse areas as homelessness, older adults, disadvantaged young people, LGBT mental health, organisational wellbeing and mental health literacy in Cambodia, as well as by the experiences of our core teaching staff, Carl Walker, Katherine Johnson and Liz Cunningham.

For the Social Research Practice module, you undertake an action-orientation project in a community psychology setting. Those who are working in a related profession can relate the project to their employer's needs; those who aren't have the opportunity to work with community and voluntary organisations including Mind, Age Concern and the Richmond Fellowship.

Modules

Community Psychology: Theory and Practice
Research Methods in the Social Sciences
Community and Clinical Approaches to Mental Distress
Social Research Practice
Dissertation

Dissertation

The dissertation forms a focal part of the MA and allows you to gain practical skills as a psychologist by doing fieldwork in the community. Previous students have used the opportunity to:

do a piece of participatory action research to explore the challenges faced by the growing population of Brazilian women in Brighton
use life-history narratives to investigate experiences of academic and social acculturation for international students
work with a local LGBT mental wellbeing service in order to reflect on the way that the development of a community has affected not only the wellbeing but the identities of its members.

Why Brighton?

This course is based around students not only engaging with the concepts and theory of community psychology but applying their skills in collaborative practice with community organisations and partners.

Brighton is a thriving and vibrant city with a strong community ethos and over 500 community and voluntary organisation around the local area.

We attract a strong mix of domestic and international students. So far in our short history we have had applicants and students from Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Russia, Greece, the USA, Germany, China, Saudi Arabia, Uganda and South Africa.

Cupp

We strongly believe that it is our duty to use our knowledge and resources for social benefit, which is why we set up the Community University Partnership Programme (Cupp) back in 2003.

Cupp is an award-winning project that aims to tackle disadvantage and promote sustainable development through partnership with local organisations. Our combined efforts have made a tangible difference to the effectiveness of community sectors and the lives of local people.

As a Brighton student, you will have the opportunity to volunteer through Cupp and work in the community yourself, all the while developing your vocational skills and gaining valuable work experience.

Staff profiles

Carl Walker

Course leader

Dr Carl Walker is the course leader for the Community Psychology MA after founding the course in 2011. He sits on the British Psychological Society's national community psychology section committee and is chair of the European Community Psychology Association Group on austerity and mental health.

Carl graduated from Royal Holloway College with a biology degree in 1996 before going on to complete a postgraduate diploma in psychology. He gained his PhD in health psychology at London Metropolitan University.

Carl was a senior research fellow in the Department of Mental Health Sciences at UCL before coming to the University of Brighton. He is interested in exploring the structural and economic elements that relate to concepts of mental distress and the use of community initiatives to work toward addressing mental health needs.

His current projects include:

Exploring informal therapeutic spaces for mental distress
Using participatory video and visual methods to explore informal therapeutic spaces
Exploring peer support for the parents of young people diagnosed with mental health conditions
Multiagency work on building community and voluntary sector capacity regarding data and evaluation practice
Exploring the use of a citizen's health survey to address a potential deficit in public accountability regarding NHS privatisation

Helen Johnson

Senior lecturer

Dr Helen Johnson (neé Gregory) holds a Postgraduate Certificate of Higher Education in Teaching and Learning (passed with distinction) and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She teaches across the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula on topics including qualitative research methods, the psychology of creativity and the arts, critical community psychology and the history of psychology.

Helen’s research focuses on the study of arts and creativity and on performative social science (or arts-based research). Her work seeks both to better understand the arts and to use the arts as a tool for data collection, analysis and dissemination. She is particularly interested in educational applications of the arts (eg youth spoken word), health/well-being applications (eg uses of the arts in dementia), and the construction of identity in different communities.

Helen uses a range of research methods, but concentrates on qualitative methods such as interviewing, ethnography, thematic analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis. In recent years, she has carried out work exploring innovative combinations of social scientific research with poetry and visual arts. Helen is also a performance poet, and runs the poetry stages at Glastonbury and Larmer Tree Festivals.

Rebecca Graber

Lecturer

"I am a health and social psychologist interested in how supportive social relationships facilitate psychological resilience in the face of adversity. I am particularly interested in how peer relationships foster resilience by providing social support. My research, teaching and project supervision covers:

Psychological resilience in the face of socioeconomic disadvantage, health risks and childhood disadvantage
Friendships, social relationships and the self
Understanding healthier patterns of risk behaviours (such as alcohol use) in young people

"I recently collaborated with the Overseas Development Institute on the 'state of the evidence' for psychological resilience to draw lessons for practitioners working in climate change and disaster response. Alongside colleagues at the University of Sussex, I helped developed a resilience-based classroom programme to promote healthier choices about alcohol, drawing upon the lived experience of young moderate drinkers and abstainers.

"During my PhD at the University of Leeds, I identified a best friendship as a facilitator of resilience among socioeconomically vulnerable young people and explored how young people's experience of friendship and resilience is shaped by their environment. I also have experience with educational uses of social media, international clinical psychology training, and trainees' clinical skills."

Careers and employability

The course explores processes of social change and participatory engagement and equips graduates with theoretical knowledge, research skills and practical insights for working in the field of community psychology. It also serves as an ideal grounding for the further use and study of participatory modes of enquiry at doctoral level.

Fees and funding

Your fees

UK/EU (full-time) 6,030 GBP

International (full-time) 12,690 GBP

Scholarships

We offer a range of scholarships for this course, find out if you are eligible:

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2016–17. Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK/EU students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee. Further details regarding tuition fees are available from the university’s student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full- or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

What's included in the fee?

When costs such as health or DBS checks, field trips or use of specialist materials are incurred as a mandatory requirement of the course they are included in your tuition fee.

You may incur additional costs depending on the optional modules or activities you choose. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. Before you apply check with the school that provides your course using the contact details in the Find out more tab (at the end of this page) for advice about what is included and what optional costs you could face so you can budget accordingly.

See our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships as well as further information about fees and advice on international and island fee paying status.

Location and living here

Location

About Brighton

Brighton has been called the happiest place in the UK, and it’s easy to see why. With five miles of pebble beach, more than 300 pubs and a packed festival calendar, Brighton is the ideal place to spend your student years.

Arts and culture: The Royal Pavilion is the most famous landmark in Brighton, opening its doors to around 400,000 tourists every year. Right next door is the Brighton Dome, the south coast’s premier multi-arts venue, and the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, which holds a diverse collection of decorative arts, textiles and archaeological artefacts.

Festivals: The Brighton Festival is now the largest arts festival in England and a major milestone in the international cultural calendar. Meanwhile, The Great Escape has been established as the UK’s leading event for new music, with over 300 bands playing 30 venues across the city over three days.

Nightlife: Aside from the many nightclubs that line the city’s seafront, student favourites include The Haunt, Concorde 2 and Patterns, which attract leading bands and DJs from around the world. If you don’t feel like dancing, you can take your pick from the many hundreds of pubs and bars that dot the city centre.

Shopping: The quirky North Laine district houses Brighton’s finest collection of boutique shops and independent cafes, while the narrow, winding streets of the South Lanes house collections of jewellery and antiques. Churchill Square is the city’s main shopping centre and serves all of your high street needs.

Sports: Brighton’s seaside location offers the perfect opportunity to try paddle boarding, kayaking and windsurfing. Further into the city, The Level has a skate park for skateboarders and BMX riders to practise their skills.

Campus where this course is taught

Falmer campus

Surrounded by the South Downs National Park and just five miles from the centre of Brighton, our Falmer campus has benefited from over £60million of investment over the past 10 years. 7,000 students are based here, studying subjects including English, education, social science, nursing and medicine.

Recent developments include the Falmer Sports Centre – with its fitness suites and sports hall – and the innovative Checkland Building, which has natural ventilation systems and an insulating green roof.

Falmer has also recently installed more than 600 solar panels, which reduce the campus’s carbon emissions by more than 80 tonnes. The renovation has made us one of the top universities in the UK for on-site renewable energy production.

Accommodation

Brighton

Our Brighton halls of residence are located across the city in Grand Parade, Moulsecoomb, Varley Park and Falmer.

Our Grand Parade campus is in central Brighton and has one hall of residence, Phoenix Brewery, within walking distance. We have around 300 rooms available in Phoenix Brewery, which are all ensuite and self-catered.

Moulsecoomb is two miles from the city centre and also has one hall of residence, Moulsecoomb Place, on campus. All accommodation in Moulsecoomb Place is catered, offering breakfast and an evening meal during term time. There are more than 150 rooms available here, with six to eight rooms per flat.

Varley Park offers the biggest choice of student accommodation with ten halls of residence. The site is four miles from Brighton centre but within walking distance of Falmer train station. You can also catch a free bus service to Grand Parade, Moulsecoomb and Falmer campuses, which is operated by local bus service The Big Lemon.

Falmer campus has two halls of residence: Great Wilkins and Paddock Field. Great Wilkins offers 150+ self-catered single rooms and one-bed couples flats, while Paddock Field offers 450+ catered and self-catered single rooms only. All rooms in Falmer are en-suite.

Aside from halls, you have the option of Unihomes, which we let out to our students on behalf of private landlords. The rent covers all utilities and includes £5,000 of contents insurance for your personal belongings.

You can also choose to join the many students who live away from campus in private rented accommodation. We have a list of high-quality, university-endorsed private sector accommodation and can help you find housemates to move in with.

If you have any questions about accommodation in Brighton, our accommodation team will be happy to help. You can contact them by email at accommodation@brighton.ac.uk or by telephone on 01273 644100.

Paddock Field