To be a psychologist: From the start....

Okay let's go from the start...

Obviously everyone knows that to be a psychologist (or any other jobs), you will need the education first. Firstly, I will not comment on the psychology diplomas as provided by the different polytechnics and institutions, as I am not familiar with them. However if you wish to ask any questions about the different diplomas, feel free to ask and I will try my best to answer them.

So we'll start from the bachelor degrees in Singapore. There are a few ways to go about getting them.
1) Local Degrees from NUS (Department of Psychology), NTU (Division of Psychology), and UniSim (School of Arts & Social Sciences)
[I am not sure of the SMU's Bachelor of Social Science as a fully psychological program as I think it is a broad program based on the "disciplines of Psychology, Sociology and Political Science" (from the SMU School of Social Sciences website)]


2) Private courses: There are quite a number of private psychological programs in Singapore, which currently there is a government council (Council of Private Education) which oversees the control of these courses and their institutions who provide these courses.
To see the universities that provide these courses, go to: Home - For Students & Future Students - Find a course and check whether it is permitted by the Council for Private Education
In "Course Title", type "Psychology" and tick "Bachelor" for "Course Level". The approved courses will be shown below and in the next few page(s). They currently include JCU, Kaplan, SIM and others.You will see on the same that that degree is awarded by its original overseas university (from Australia or UK or others).
However, that DOES NOT mean that these courses are definitely accredited programs in their original countries. More research have to be done if you wish to find that out. How? You may ask. Just go back to the governing body for the courses of APS/APA/BPS, and the information should be there. While looking at the original information of the degree from the oversea university, they should also say if the course is being accredited or not.

For the full updated list of programs, please view here: Updated: Comparison of Bachelor Degree programs in Singapore

Why should a course be accredited? Being accredited means that the society/association recognises that program as a proper program that uses the right techniques and have the appropriate modules to allow the student to have the right skills. So by being taking an accredited program, this means that your program provides you with the right pathway towards being a recognised psychologist. So if the program is not accredited, even if it is a postgraduate program, you will still not be recognised as a psychologist in the local country (US/Australia/UK).

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