Career Prospects
After finish your degree, what can you do next?
If your aim is to take up a professional career in psychology, you will need to be prepared to undertake further study which typically requires independent but supervised research in the area which interests you e.g. neuroscience, developmental psychology, psychiatry or pharmacology. About a quarter of our undergraduates go on to take graduate degrees (a taught masters or a doctorate) either here at Oxford, Cambridge or other institutions within the United Kingdom or overseas.
Further information is available on our MSc and DPhil courses on our website.
After completing a taught masters or doctorate, post-doctoral students may then develop research careers in universities, or in applied laboratories, government agencies or industrial companies and consultancies.
A Doctorate in Clinical Psychology requires a three-year period of graduate training which is usually preceded by gaining some practical experience in a job related to mental health. Educational and Occupational Psychology are other fields with their own graduate training requirements.
There are also careers, which are closely related and benefit from psychological training. For example: personnel, probation and social work.
Our degrees provide you with general training in systematic analysis of questions about human beings, including numeracy, literacy, and IT skills. As such, they are widely regarded as excellent training for a very wide range of careers in commerce, government, industry, media, and the professions.
Students can enter careers in fields including professional psychology, education, research, medicine, the health services, finance, commerce, industry, media and information technology. However, some careers will require further study and/or training after your degree.