Question: What is the best university to study psychology at?

Tom Hartley answered on 15 Jun 2010:

This is a very good question, and one that many school students do not think about enough. The newspapers often publish league tables that give you a good idea about which universities are best for which subject. Here is the Psychology league table from the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/table/2010/jun/04/university-guide-psychology

Not everyone would agree with the way these tables are made, and you get slightly different answers depending on which aspects of University you think are most important. The University of York (where I work) is ranked 7th in this table, but we scored 97% for teaching satisfaction – so we’re top of the league for that!

Another thing you should think about if you’re considering Psychology at University (great idea BTW) is the GCSEs and A-levels you choose. At York we normally look for science subjects at A-level, you could do Psychology, but Biology, Maths and Physics or Chemistry would be just as good, maybe better. To do science at A-level, I think you have to study double or triple science at GCSE (in England, I’m not sure how it works elsewhere in the UK). You should ask your teacher about this.

Some people have the wrong idea about Psychology – in the bookshop you find “psychology” books between crystal healing and self-help. But at university Psychology is a biological science, as I hope you can tell my profile and answers on this site (but don’t hold it against Psychology if I get things wrong – most of my colleagues are far cleverer than me).