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  • Psychosocial Studies (Graduate Certificate)
  • 2012/2013 entry
  • Contact us
  • Assessment
    • Each module is assessed by a 3000-word essay submitted in May.
  • Attendance
      • One evening per week.
      • October–April.
      • Essays due in in May.
  • Duration
      • Two terms.
  • Entry requirements
  • Fees and funding
    • Fees (2012/13)
      • Part-time (home/EU students): £2700 pa
      • Part-time (overseas students): £4575 pa
  • Location
      • Central London.
  • Teaching

    • The programme will be delivered through part-time, evening, face-to-face study. Teaching and learning methods include:

      • formal teaching and lecturing by specialist staff in the School of Psychosocial Studies
      • seminars, tutorials, group and individual supervision 
      • a range of small-group work carried out by students outside of teaching time in order to develop generic skills in listening, negotiation, leadership, cooperation, collective organisation, collective writing and document preparation (including mastering internet wiki technology) and oral presentation
      • a range of writing, documenting and recording projects that may include the production of case notes, field notes, reflective process notes, collective writing using wiki technology, creative and autobiographical writing, journalistic pieces, etc
      • student teaching experience in the form of small-group mini-lectures to fellow students on developing research topics.

Psychosocial Studies (Graduate Certificate) - 2012/2013 entry


  • Overview

    • This programme introduces you to substantial strands of psychosocial theory – theory that proposes different ways of understanding the interrelationship between the development of subjectivity and identity, and historical and contemporary social and political formations. The focus is on psychoanalysis and social theory.

      The Graduate Certificate in Psychosocial Studies prepares you to identify and analyse a range of psychosocial phenomena (such as violence, war, trauma, terrorism, intimacies, communities, care, human rights, agency, resistance, and personal and social transformations).  The programme will advance your study skills and provide you with the intellectual and academic foundations that will prepare you for postgraduate programmes in psychosocial studies. The Graduate Certificate programme will give you access to the exciting emergent new interdisciplinary field of Psychosocial Studies and offers a pathway to further study: courses run by the Department of Psychosocial Studies, specifically the MA Psychosocial Studies, MA Psychoanalysis, History and Culture, and MA Culture, Diaspora and Ethnicity.

      Students on the Graduate Certificate will also be invited to our many extra curricula events in the department, which include guest speakers, master-classes and film events.

  • Why study this course at Birkbeck?
      • Introduces you to key themes in psychosocial studies, providing the basis for understanding the relation between individual subjectivities and identities, and historical and contemporary social and political formations.
      • Focuses on insights from psychoanalysis, contemporary sociology and social theory.
      • Staff are internationally recognised figures at the forefront of this important new field of studies.
      • Particularly suitable for applicants with degrees or other qualifications outside the core disciplinary areas of psychosocial studies, who wish to gain a solid grounding before proceeding to further study.
  • Course structure

    • The programme consists of two 30-credit modules:

      • Introduction to Psychoanalysis: 10-week module introducing key concepts of psychoanalysis, spread across Freudian, Kleinian and Lacanian approaches.
      • Social Theory and Sociology: 10-week module introducing critical approaches in sociology, including feminist and postcolonial perspectives.
  • Study resources
    • Students have access to the Birkbeck Library. All students at Birkbeck benefit from a wide range of advantages related to the central location of the College and its varied and rich student life. There are also talks and seminars organised by the Department of Psychosocial Studies and the Birkbeck Institutes. Resources are made available via an online learning environment.
  • Further study opportunities
  • Careers information
    • Graduates go on to further training in the psychotherapies, or careers in development studies, charities and NGOs, social policy, health and social care, mental health, and teaching.
  • Apply now